Iraq's interim president said Tuesday it would be "complete nonsense" to ask U.S. and other foreign troops to leave Iraq at this point but some of the 170,000 soldiers could be leaving Iraq by the end of the year.
Ghazi al-Yawer said foreign troops should leave only after Iraq's security forces are built up, the security situation has improved and some "pockets of terrorists" are eliminated.
"It's only complete nonsense to ask the troops to leave in this chaos and this vacuum of power," al-Yawer told reporters. "By the end of this year, we could see the number of foreign troops decreasing," he said.
Meanwhile, a branch of Zarqawi's group has announced in a video obtained Tuesday that it is holding four Iraqi National Guardsmen and that they will be punished.
In a video obtained by Associated Press Television News, the group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed to have captured the four after Sunday's elections. The four were shown wearing Iraqi National Guard uniforms.
APTN obtained the tape in the town of Latifiyah about 20 miles south of Baghdad. A masked man reading from a paper in his right hand and holding a Kalashnikov in the other, said the "Battalions of Holy Jihad in Iraq" had captured "those traitors of the infidel guards who will get the punishment they deserve for their treason against their country and people."
"They participated in the elections farce and they are now at the disposal of leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. May God protect him," he said.
© 2005 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
