ATLANTA (AP) — President Barack Obama says America’s combat role in Iraq will end Aug. 31 “as promised and on schedule.”
Obama tells the Disabled American Veterans organization that violence in Iraq has been at a lower ebb recently. And he says that in advance of terminating U.S. combat operations there, hundreds of bases have been transferred to the Iraqis and “we’re moving out millions of pieces of equipment.”
Obama pledged in his presidential campaign to pull all troops out by the end of 2011. And in his Atlanta speech, he said that by the end of August, more than 90,000 servicemen and women will have been brought home since he took office.
However, there was a chilling reminder of the perils that linger — two bombings and a drive-by shooting killed eight people.
