New Iraq progress report due April 8-9
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The top US military commander and diplomat in Iraq will deliver their next progress report for Iraq on April 8-9, seven months before the US elections, the White House said Thursday.
General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker will go before US lawmakers to discuss the security situation and efforts to forge national political reconciliation, five years after the US-led invastion.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino indicated that Crocker would testify April 8-9. US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe later said that Petraeus would deliver his account on the same dates.
US President George W. Bush has said for months that the report will shape the level of US forces in the strife-torn country, much as a previous one in September 2007 led to a slight draw-down to be completed by July 2008.
But top US officials have indicated that they expect the United States to have more troops in Iraq at that point than before Bush ordered a "surge" of about 30,000 more troops there in January 2007.
The vastly unpopular war is expected to be a key issue in the November 2008 elections that will decide who replaces Bush in January 2009.
