Reply #32: U.S. pulls 700 troops from Iraq, denies report of mass withdrawal

[ProSense]

"The US suffered a major diplomatic and military rebuff on Friday when Iraq finally rejected "

September 6: U.S. pulls 700 troops from Iraq, denies report of mass withdrawal

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But as they prepare to exit, administration officials in Washington were denying a news report claiming the White House wants to keep fewer U.S. troops in Iraq beyond this year than previously believed. According to Fox News, the White House is considering keeping just 3,000 troops in Iraq beyond the Dec. 31 deadline for nearly all servicemembers to be out of the country, per the existing bilateral security agreement between Washington and Baghdad. Previous news reports said the administration wanted to keep 10,000 troops in Iraq.

On Tuesday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the new report was not accurate.

“If the Iraqi government makes a request of us, we will certainly consider it,” he said, sticking with the U.S position and deferring to Baghdad.

Pentagon press secretary George Little also quickly dismissed the report, saying in an email, “No decisions on troop levels have been made.”

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This bogus rumor started with Fox Noise and the rest of the media ran with it. In fact, even after the report was denied in early September, last week the media reported that the President abandoned the plan.