Middle East, Iraq Troop Withdrawal | featured news

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates visited as Baghdad was reeling from bombings and U.S. forces are beginning to prepare for withdrawals this spring.

Iraq's Cabinet has signed off on a $67 billion draft budget for 2010 that is well below what officials have said is needed, raising concerns that the shortfall will derail the progress of Iraqi security forces just they are taking over from withdrawing American troops.

A series of powerful explosions reverberated across the heart of Baghdad today, killing at least 75 people and wounding more than 300 on the deadliest day in the capital since U.S. forces completed their withdrawal from Iraq's cities on June 30.

Bombs in Baghdad and northern Iraq killed at least 41 people and wounded more than 80 on Thursday, police said, just over a week after U.S. troops handed security in city centers to local forces.

At least seven bombs exploded around the country Thursday amid a up-tick in violence as American troops prepare to withdraw from Iraqi cities on June 30.

U.S. combat forces will vacate all Iraqi cities on schedule by the end of this month, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq said on Tuesday, including the insurgent stronghold of Mosul.

The Pentagon is prepared to leave fighting forces in Iraq for as long as a decade despite an agreement between the United States and Iraq that would bring all American troops home by 2012, the top U.S. Army officer said Tuesday.