BAGHDAD — About 12,000 U.S. soldiers will leave Iraq by September, officials said Sunday, hours after a Baghdad suicide bomber killed about 30 people in a chilling reminder of the nation’s shaky security.
The withdrawals, which will most likely come from Baghdad and Anbar province, once main battlefields of the war, are the first step in keeping with President Barack Obama’s pledge to end America’s role in the war.
That would drop U.S. troop levels to more than 120,000 — still a substantial force. As part of the drawdown, the U.S. will turn over 74 facilities and areas under its control to the Iraqis by the end of March.
All 4,000 British soldiers remaining in Iraq are scheduled to leave by September.
A U.S. spokesman, Maj. Gen. David Perkins, said Iraq’s security has “greatly improved, moving from a very unstable to a stable position.” He said violence was at its lowest level since the summer of 2003.
Sunday’s attack was the worst in Baghdad in months, injuring about 60 people beyond the dozens killed. But in a news conference hours later, Perkins described it as a sign that U.S.- led coalition forces have militants on the run.
“We know that al-Qaeda, although greatly reduced in capability and numbers, still is desperate to maintain relevance here in Iraq,” he said.
The suicide bomber detonated his explosives as he drove his motorcycle into a group of people, many of them police recruits, waiting near a side entrance of Baghdad’s main police academy in a mainly Shiite area of the city.
The heavily fortified academy has been hit by several bombings.
A Dec. 1 suicide bombing there killed at least 33 people and wounded dozens, including four U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi general.
Iraqi and U.S. forces sealed off the scene Sunday, allowing only ambulances and fire engines to enter. Iraqi troops fired into the air to prevent people from getting too close.
No group claimed responsibility for the blast, but suicide bombings are the signature attack of Sunni religious extremists, including al-Qaeda.
There are about 135,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, and their planned withdrawal will be gradual at first to leave most of them in place for parliamentary elections at the end of this year.
