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Iraq violence may endure as US troops pull back: Gates
Violence may continue in certain parts of Iraq in the coming months after US troops pull out of the country's cities, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said.
Violence may continue in certain parts of Iraq in the coming months after US troops pull out of the country's cities, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said.
"I expect that there will continue to be sporadic attacks as people try and take advantage" of the US withdrawal, Gates told reporters as he travelled back to Washington on Tuesday after a short trip to Germany to attend the change of command at EUCOM, the base of US operations in Europe.
"I think it's still a dangerous situation -- we lost four kids on Wednesday," he said, referring to four US soldiers whose combat-related deaths in Iraq came on the eve of the deadline for the US military to exit urban centres across the country.
Gates added that Al-Qaeda and others were trying to "increase the level of violence to try to pretend that they forced us out of the cities," and show weakness in the Iraqi security forces.
The secretary said the situation in Iraq varies from city to city, with Fallujah, Kirkuk and Basra "pretty quiet."
But, he said, US forces were "in the middle of a fight in Mosul when this deadline came and we've seen some of these high profile suicide attacks in Baghdad."
Some 133,000 US soldiers were still stationed in Iraq, said Gates, who also visited wounded US soldiers on his visit honoring Admiral James Stavridis taking control of US European Command.
