Iraq tells US 'leave any time'


IRAQ Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has shrugged off US doubts of Iraq's military and political progress, saying its forces are capable and American troops can leave "any time they want".
And one of his top aides accused the US of embarrassing the Government by violating human rights and treating his country like an experiment in a US lab.
On Thursday, the White House reported mixed progress by Iraq's government in meeting 18 benchmarks.
Mr Maliki said difficulty enacting the reforms was "natural" given Iraq's turmoil.
Mr Maliki said his government needed "time and effort", but if necessary, Iraqi police and soldiers could fill the void left by a coalition departure.
"We say in full confidence that we are able, God willing, to take the responsibility completely . . . if the international forces withdraw at any time they want," he said.
Close Maliki adviser Hassan al-Suneid said the US treated Iraq like "an experiment in an American laboratory (judging) whether we succeed or fail".
He said the US military was committing rights violations, embarrassing the Government by its tactics and co-operating with "gangs of killers" in its campaign to recruit Sunnis to help fight al-Qaida.
US airstrikes to hit suspected insurgents also killed civilians, he said.
VETERANS' accounts of war in Iraq have appeared in US magazine The Nation, which devoted an edition to accounts of 50 US troops shocked by civilian casualties.
They said indiscriminate killings were mostly "perpetrated by a minority", but were common, often unreported and almost always unpunished.
"The general attitude was, 'A dead Iraqi is just another dead Iraqi'," said army specialist Jeff Englehart, 26.
- AP, AFP



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