WASHINGTON, September 30 (RIA Novosti) - The top U.S. commander in Iraq is planning to withdraw about 4,000 servicemen from Iraq by the end of October, U.S. media sources said on Wednesday.
As a result, the United States will have about 120,000 troops stationed in the war-torn country, where the number of militant attacks has dramatically dropped over the past two years, the sources cited excerpts from Gen. Raymond Odierno's report to the House of Representatives to be delivered on Wednesday.
In line with a U.S.-Iraqi security pact, signed in November 2008, about 50,000 U.S. troops will remain on Iraqi territory by August 2010, and the withdrawal of U.S. servicemen from the country should be completed by the end of 2011.
According to official data, the U.S. military has lost 4,349 servicemen in Iraq since the U.S-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein's regime. Another 31,500 were wounded during the same period.
Fatalities among American soldiers have declined since the U.S. troops pulled out of urban areas in Iraq on June 30 this year.
