The withdrawal of US combat forces from Iraqi cities by the end of the month remains "very much on track" despite a spike in violence there, the top US military officer said Sunday. Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also said US force levels in Iraq would drop to between 35,000 and 50,000 troops by August of 2010.
"We've had an uptick in violence, but the overall violence levels are at the 2003 levels. It's still fragile," Mullen said. His comments came at the end of a week that saw a wave of violence in Iraq, with suicide attackers and bombings killing 26 people on Thursday, including three US soldiers, and a huge blast claiming 40 lives in a Shiite area of Baghdad the day before.
The killings have raised fears that Iraq will burst into violence again after US combat troops depart the cities as scheduled by June 30, and amid withdrawal of all US troops by the end of 2011.
Mullen acknowledged that "we have to constantly keep an eye on that," noting that al Qaeda in Iraq remains active. But he said "we're still very much on a track in terms of pulling the forces out of the cities, which is the end of next month." "We're on track to decrease the number of troops down to 35,000 to 50,000 in August of 2010," he said. There are still about 139,000 US troops in Iraq.