Iraqi sees need for U.S. military until 2018: report
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Iraq's defense minister said on Monday his country would need foreign military help to defend its borders for another 10 years and would not be able to maintain internal security until 2012.
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Foreign minister to remind the US of its responsibility to help build Iraqi forces.
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Chances for the United States to reduce its military forces in Iraq within one year will depend on security on the ground and advances in US diplomacy, US Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said.
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BAGHDAD -- Iraqi security forces will need another year to 18 months before they can take over from American troops, the top US commander in Iraq, General George W. Casey Jr., said yesterday.
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Foreign troop levels in Iraq could drop to less than 100,000 by the end of 2008 if Iraq's own forces were ready and security threats had diminished, Iraq's national security adviser said on Wednesday.
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The new U.S. military commander in Iraq said on Saturday that American and Iraqi security forces had to stabilize the country in what he called a high-stakes battle, or it would be doomed to more violence.
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Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Thursday his government's forces would be able to take over security command from U.S. troops by June 2007 -- a move which could allow the United States to start withdrawing.
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Iraq's government on Tuesday welcomed long-awaited testimony to Congress by the U.S. commander in Iraq and said it would have less need for foreign forces to carry out combat operations in the "near future".
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Iraq's military is drawing up plans to cope with any quick U.S. military pullout as a senior American official warned that the Bush administration may reconsider its support if Iraqi leaders don't make major reforms by fall
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Adm. William J. Fallon, expected to be confirmed as the new top U.S. commander in the Middle East, said today that "time is running out" for Iraq's government to demonstrate its commitment to reducing violence in the country, without which Fallon said U.S. military operations will not succeed.
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The United States will maintain its   enlarged force in Iraq at current levels until at least mid   -2007, the top U.S. general in the Middle East said on Tuesday,   as Washington scrambles to prevent all-out sectarian war.
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Two senior defense officials told a House committee today that Iraq's growing security forces should be able to take full responsibility for internal security sometime between early 2009 and 2012, but they declined to predict when U.S. military personnel could withdraw from the country.
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WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates told a House panel yesterday that the United States should know in a few months if the Iraqi government is making progress toward peace and whether the United States "is going to have to look at other alternatives and consequences."
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Following an intense assessment of U.S. policies in the war in Iraq, the Iraq Study Group will recommend that a "gradual but meaningful" reduction of U.S. troops begin "relatively early in the New Year," a source familiar with the group's deliberations tells CNN. The report will be released next week.
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A report by an independent commission says that it will be at least 12 to 18 months before Iraqâs army and police can take charge of the countryâs security.
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U.S.-led forces could leave Iraq within  18 months, Iraqi interim Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib told  Britain's Channel 4 News Sunday after Iraq's election.
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The U.S. military commander in Iraq said on Thursday he currently saw no immediate need to request more U.S. troops other those already announced.