Violence mars Biden’s Iraq visit

Deadly wave of attacks hits security patrols as US president-elect visits Baghdad.

baghdad bomb attacks
Iraqi police continue to be frequent targets of attacks [Reuters]

Withdrawal plan

Ali al-Dabbagh, an Iraqi government spokesman, told the Reuters news agency that US and Iraqi officials were meeting to implement the withdrawal plan.

“The joint committee to execute the withdrawal of forces … agreement begins its work this week.”

Al-Dabbagh said that issues to be ironed out included ensuring security in Iraq’s 18 provinces – some of which were still very violent – and training security forces.

Iraqi security forces in Baghdad came under a series of bomb attacks on Monday which also killed a number of civilians.

Despite the decreasing violence across the country, local police are still being targeted as they take over control of the provinces from US forces under a new bilateral deal that took effect at the beginning of the year.

US combat troops are due to leave major cities by the middle of this year and all troops are set to withdraw from the country by the end of 2011.

Source: News Agencies