U.S. to cut Iraq troop strength by 12,000

By Tim Cocks

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The United States will reduce the number of troops in Iraq by around 12,000 in the next six months, the U.S. military said on Sunday, a step in President Barack Obama's plan to end combat operations in August 2010.

Hours earlier, a suicide bomber killed 28 people as recruits gathered at a Baghdad police academy, the first large-scale attack in the capital in almost a month.

"Two brigade combat teams who were scheduled to redeploy in the next six months, along with enabling forces such as logistics, engineers and intelligence, will not be replaced," the U.S. military said in a statement.

Reducing the number of U.S. combat brigades in Iraq from 14 to 12 will cut the number of American troops by 12,000 from around 140,000 now, said Major-General David Perkins, spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq.

Six years after the U.S.-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein, Obama plans to pull all combat troops out of Iraq by August 31, 2010, leaving 35,000 to 50,000 support and training troops as Washington shifts its military focus to Afghanistan.

Last month, Obama ordered 17,000 extra troops to Afghanistan to tackle the troublesome insurgency there and fulfil his campaign promises to wind down the unpopular war in Iraq.

Under a U.S.-Iraqi security pact negotiated by former President George W. Bush that took effect on January 1, the United States must withdraw all its troops from Iraq by end-2011.

Perkins told a news conference that 4,000 troops from Britain, Bush's chief ally in the 2003 invasion, would also leave Iraq in the coming months.

The sectarian and insurgent violence that has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Iraqis and more than 4,500 foreign troops since 2003 has fallen off sharply.

Perkins said violence was currently at its lowest level since around August 2003 and Iraq was in a "stable situation."

Yet Iraq remains a dangerous place and insurgents still stage regular attacks in places like the northern city of Mosul, seen as a last urban stronghold for Sunni Islamist al Qaeda.

STUBBORN VIOLENCE

"What happened today will not undermine overall security improvements," Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said.

General Ray Odierno, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, has advocated a cautious approach to removing troops from a country that many fear easily could tip back into rampant bloodshed.

Perkins said the military would re-examine its allocation of troops as the overall force dwindles. "We will reposition assets through the country ... based on the threat level," he said.