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Article: US Unit To Leave Baghdad Soon; Violence Returns.
- Article from:
- APS Review Gas Market Trends
- Article date:
- May 25, 2009
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The 1st US Battalion, headed by Capt Natahan Williams, are preparing to pull out of their base in Baghdad's Hurriyah zone. The battalion of a 150 soldiers will leave the base on May 30, a month ahead of the deadline for all US combat forces to transfer to garrisons outside Baghdad. They will hand over Hurriyah, scene of vicious 2006 Shi'ite-Sunni fighting, to an elite Iraqi Army battalion.
A Pentagon report in January found that, as of October 2008, only 17 of the 175 Iraqi combat battalions and two of the 34 National Police battalions could operate on their own. The US-Iraqi SOFA requires American combat troops to leave urban areas by June 30 and relocate in ...