Barack Obama to order all US troops out of Iraq by 2010

President Barack Obama plans to order that all US combat troops be withdrawn from Iraq by August 2010, administration officials have said.

The move will end the war that defined his presidential campaign three months later than he had promised.

Mr Obama’s plan would pull out all combat troops 19 months after his inauguration last month, although he had promised repeatedly during the 2008 campaign that he would withdraw them 16 months after taking office.

The pledge, and his original opposition to the war, helped build enormous grassroots support for his White House bid.

That schedule, based on removing roughly one brigade a month, was predicated on commanders determining that it would not endanger US troops left behind or Iraq’s fragile security.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t

After consulting commanders he has settled on a longer timetable.

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