Pentagon's Replicator Initiative Faces Skepticism Amid Push for Rapid Drone Deployment

 The Pentagon's Replicator initiative, aiming to deploy thousands of drones in two years to counter China, has garnered mixed reactions. The initiative, announced by Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, faces skepticism as details remain vague. While hailed as innovative, doubts persist about Replicator's ability to navigate bureaucratic barriers and deliver tangible results. Industry leaders, investors, and lawmakers express cautious optimism, emphasizing the need for transparency on funding, procurement processes, and the practicality of deploying drones to deter conflicts, particularly around Taiwan. Replicator's success hinges on overcoming funding challenges, engaging nontraditional companies, and defining clear strategies for selecting and deploying drone systems.

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Iraq considers Czech made Fighter jets

PRAGUE — The Czech Republic is looking to sell dozens of Czech-made L-159 subsonic jet fighters to Iraq, Defence Minister Alexandr Vondra said after talks Jan. 23 with his Iraqi counterpart in Prague.

"The talks are very intensive ... and concern dozens of planes," Vondra told reporters after meeting Iraq's acting Defence Minister Saadun al-Dulaimi. Al-Dulaimi said Iraq was "really very interested in the planes," which it wants as soon as possible.

Vondra said the Czech side was offering new fighters made by Czech manufacturer Aero Vodochody, as well as 36 unused L-159s, which the defense ministry has been trying to sell for years.

"Iraq is logically interested in new planes ... but it also wants the fighters as fast as possible, so we can use at least part of the unused planes owned by the defense ministry," Vondra said, refusing to give details about the price of the planes, which are facing competition from Britain's Hawk and South Korea's TA-50.

Aero Vodochody, controlled by Czech-Slovak private equity group Penta, is the largest Czech aircraft producer and a subcontractor for Sikorsky, Saab and EADS and other manufacturers.

Iraq and Egypt talk to boost military cooperation

CAIRO — Egypt’s military ruler Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi on Jan. 18 held talks with Iraqi Defence Minister Saadun al-Dulaimi on ways of boosting military ties between the two nations, officials said.

Talks centered on “training Iraqi officers and exchanging military expertise,” as well as regional and international efforts to support stability in Iraq, one source said.

The meeting was attended by armed forces chief of staff Lt. Gen. Sami Annan and several members of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces which took over after president Hosni Mubarak’s ouster last year.

More than 200 people have been killed in Iraq since U.S. forces completed their withdrawal last month from the country.

Since then the country has been in the throes of a festering dispute between the Shiite-led government and ministers from the Sunni-backed Iraqi bloc with analysts warning violence could rise if the row is not contained.

U.S., Israel Postpone Joint Missile Exercises

JERUSALEM - Israel and the United States have agreed to postpone a major military defence exercise scheduled for spring, a senior security official Jan. 15 Sunday, amid rising regional tension over Iran's nuclear programme.

"Israel and the United States have agreed to postpone the maneuver planned for spring," the official said on condition of anonymity.

"The exercises will take place between now and the end of 2012," the official added, without elaborating.

Earlier, public radio said the "Austere Challenge 12" exercise would be pushed back to the end of 2012 over unspecified budgetary concerns, citing military sources.

Israeli Army radio, citing a defense official, said it was being postponed to avoid "unnecessary headlines in such a tense period."

The joint maneuver was to have been the biggest yet between the two allies and was seen as an opportunity to display their joint military strength at a time of growing concern about Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Israel, the United States and much of the international community accuse Iran of using its nuclear program to mask a weapons drive, a charge Tehran denies.

The postponement appeared to suggest fears the exercise could dangerously ramp up regional tensions, at a time when Iran has already threatened to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz - a chokepoint for one fifth of the world's traded oil - in the event of a military strike or severe tightening of international sanctions over its nuclear program.

Meanwhile, the United States sent Iran a letter over its threatened closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said Jan. 15, without revealing the letter's contents.

"The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Susan Rice, sent a letter to Mohammad Khazaie, Iran's U.N. representative, which was conveyed by the Swiss ambassador, and finally Iraqi President Jalal Talabani delivered its contents to officials" in Iran, the official IRNA news agency quoted Ramin Mehmanparast as saying.

"We are in the process of studying the letter and if necessary we will respond."

Last month, the Israelis insisted the joint maneuvers were planned in advance and denied they were related to Iran.

"The exercise scenario involves notional, simulated events as well as some field training and is not in response to any real-world event," the military said.

The postponement was not expected to affect a visit to Israel by top U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, who is scheduled to arrive this week and meet with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz.

But the delay was announced as reports suggested unease in U.S.-Israeli relations over the best response to Iran's nuclear program, and after an Israeli official voiced "disappointment" at Washington's approach.

Washington has spearheaded a push for international sanctions against Iran, including on its oil exports and financial institutions.

But Israel's Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Yaalon told public radio he thought U.S. President Barack Obama's administration should be tougher.

"France and Britain understand that the sanctions must be strengthened, in particular against the Iranian Central Bank," Yaalon said. "The U.S. Senate is also in favor, but the U.S. government is hesitating, fearing higher oil prices in an election year. It's disappointing."

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, speaking Jan. 15 ahead of a trip to Britain, also accused the international community of dragging its feet.

"It is regrettable that the international community has not yet used all the means at its disposal to stop the Iranian nuclear program," he told public radio.

Israel has made no secret of its desire to see crippling sanctions imposed on Iran in a bid to slow its nuclear development, and reports suggest it has also taken other actions to delay the program.

The Jewish state is suspected of involvement both in a computer worm that reportedly set back Iran's nuclear efforts, as well as a campaign of assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists.

Media reports have pointed the finger at Israel's intelligence agency Mossad.

Foreign Policy magazine reported that Israel's actions had created friction with Washington, and The Wall Street Journal reported Jan. 13 that U.S. officials had warned Israel against unilateral military action against Iran.

Yaalon said Jan. 15 that a military strike remained a last resort for Israel.

"Israel must defend itself. I hope that we will not arrive at that point," he said.

U.S. Draws Up Contingencies in Case Israel Attacks Iran: Report

WASHINGTON - The U.S. government is concerned that Israel is preparing to take military action against Iran over U.S. objections, and has stepped up contingency planning to safeguard U.S. facilities in the region, The Wall Street Journal reported Jan. 13.

The newspaper said U.S. President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and other top officials have delivered a series of private messages to Israeli leaders, warning about the dire consequences of a strike.

Obama spoke by telephone Jan. 12 with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, will meet with Israeli military officials in Tel Aviv next week, the report said.

The report said that the U.S. military was preparing for a number of possible responses to an Israeli strike, including assaults by pro-Iranian Shiite militias in Iraq against the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

Up to 15,000 U.S. diplomats, federal employees and contractors still remain in Iraq.

To help deter Iran, the United States is maintaining 15,000 troops in Kuwait, and has moved a second aircraft carrier strike group to the Persian Gulf area, the report said.

Russia Vows Review After Villager Finds 79 AK47s

MOSCOW - A villager in provincial Russia has caused a national scandal after finding 79 Kalashnikov assault rifles in crates that he bought to use as firewood, Russian media reported on Jan. 13.

A truck driver was supposed to take the crates for disposal from the factory in the central city of Izhevsk where Kalashnikovs are manufactured, but he thought they were empty and sold them to the unnamed villager.

The man who had hoped to use the wood as fuel for his stove called the police, and an investigation was launched amid concerns about security at the nationally renowned Izhmash arms factory, local police said.

"Probably there are weapons in other boxes as well. We must check how weapons were stored and utilized and whether anything else is missing," a police spokesman said according to news agency ITAR-TASS.

The case caused Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin to express exasperation on his Twitter feed.

"A pensioner has found dozens of Kalashnikov rifles. Oh my!" Rogozin wrote.

He said that he would travel to Izhevsk later this month to hold talks at the Izhmash weapons plant.

The Kalashnikov AK47 and its more modern versions are the weapons of choice for dozens of armies and guerrilla groups around the world.

More than 100 million Kalashnikovs have been sold worldwide and they are widely used by fighters in conflict zones such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia.

The designer of the AK47, Mikhail Kalashnikov, was given the prestigious 'Hero of Russia' award in 2009, and there is a museum in Izhevsk entirely devoted to his life and work.

Bulgaria 2011 Arms Sales Total $380M: Report

SOFIA, Bulgaria - Bulgaria's defense industry has escaped unscathed from the general economic crisis, with its exports hitting $380 million in 2011, Pressa newspaper reported Jan. 12.

It cited figures by the Bulgarian Defense Industry Association (BDIA). Such statistics are usually kept secret.

The organization, which groups Bulgaria's major arms and munitions makers, refused to specify where its sales went to.

The newspaper however cited Algeria, Afghanistan, the United States and Iraq as traditional buyers of Bulgarian light weapons and ammunition.

Bulgaria's defense industry exports had stood at $200 million in 2008, Pressa said citing data from the same association.

"It is still hard to compare the situation with the years before (the fall of communism in) 1989," BDIA co-chairman Stefan Vodenicharov told the newspaper.

Before the end of communism, Bulgaria's armaments industry was around 10 times the size it is now, employing 115,000 people and shipped abroad an annual $700 million to $800 million worth of armaments - at prices from then.

But the advent of democracy, the disbanding of the Warsaw Pact and a number of international arms sales embargoes to countries in Africa and the Arab world plunged the industry into a deep crisis in the 1990s.

The majority of production facilities have since been privatized with the government recently selling its remaining stock in the Arsenal Kazanlak light arms and munitions plant, the only licensed producer of Russian Kalashnikov assault rifles during the Cold War.

It had also prepared a strategy to soon put on the table VMZ Sopot, its biggest defense firm to remain fully state-owned.

China State Media Cautious on New U.S. Defense Plan

BEIJING - China's official Xinhua news agency said Jan. 6 it welcomed a bigger U.S. presence in Asia, but only if it helped promote peace in the region, after President Barack Obama unveiled a new military strategy.

The plan calls for the U.S. military to strengthen its presence in Asia and prepare for possible challenges from countries such as China, while downplaying future huge counter-insurgency campaigns such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Beijing has given no official response to the review, but Xinhua said Jan. 6 that the United States was welcome to make "more contribution to peace and stability in the Asia Pacific region", while urging it against "warmongering".

"The U.S. role, if fulfilled with a positive attitude and free from a Cold War-style zero-sum mentality, will not only be conducive to regional stability and prosperity, but be good for China," it said in a comment piece.

"However, while boosting its military presence in the Asia Pacific, the United States should abstain from flexing its muscles," it added. "If the United States indiscreetly applies militarism in the region, it will be like a bull in a china shop, and endanger peace instead of enhancing regional stability."

The United States is increasingly focusing its attention on the Asia-Pacific region, where commanders worry about China's growing military power.

The People's Liberation Army is the world's largest active military, and is extremely secretive about its defense programs, which benefit from a huge and expanding military budget.

In November, Obama went on a week-long tour of the Pacific in a bid to enhance the role of the United States in the region, positioning Marines in northern Australia and pushing for a trans-Pacific trade pact.

Shortly afterwards, China announced it would conduct routine naval exercises in the Pacific Ocean, in what some saw as a symbolic move aimed at the United States. Meanwhile, the Global Times - an official, nationalistic daily newspaper - accused the United States of trying to contain China and called on Beijing to "strengthen its long-range strike abilities and put more deterrence on the U.S."

"The U.S. must realize that it cannot stop the rise of China and that being friendly to China is in its utmost interests," it said in en editorial.

The new U.S. strategy unveiled Jan. 5 calls for a leaner military, and also focuses on preventing Iran from securing nuclear weapons.

Cypriot Protesters Demand British Forces Leave

NICOSIA - Protesters demanding that British forces withdraw from Cyprus clashed with police at a military base, leaving around a dozen people hurt, police said Jan. 2.

Among the injured at the British military base of Akrotiri were demonstrators, police officers and a journalist. State television said at least three people were arrested.

Around 120 people had turned up at the Akrotiri compound near the southern coastal city of Limassol, and the protest got off to a peaceful start before quickly deteriorating.

Demonstrators threw stones, sticks and bottles at the base's police force outside the compound.

Shops and cars were also damaged in the skirmishes with the police, who are mostly Greek Cypriot.

A helicopter was dispatched and loud explosions could also be heard, although police on state television attributed them to firecrackers.

The protest was orchestrated by a new group calling themselves the National Anti-Colonial Platform, with their demands being the immediate withdrawal of British forces from the Mediterranean island.

The group's website vowed to return to a British base to continue their demonstrations.

Britain has retained two sovereign military bases on Cyprus - at Akrotiri in the southwest and Dhekelia in the southeast - since the island gained independence from British rule in 1960.

Last month, Britain confirmed it would retain both, with Defence Secretary Philip Hammond saying they "are in a region of geopolitical importance and high priority for the United Kingdom's long-term national security interests."

The bases, home to some 9,000 personnel and their families, are seen as strategically imperative and have been used by British forces in offenses against Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.

Maliki Declares 'Iraq Day' to Mark U.S. Pullout

BAGHDAD - Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki declared "Iraq Day" on Dec. 31 to mark the end of a pact allowing U.S. forces to stay in the country, two weeks after they left and with Iraq mired in a political row.

IRAQI PRIME MINISTER Nuri al-Maliki delivers a speech Dec. 31 during a ceremony at Al-Shaab stadium complex in central Baghdad. Maliki declared 'Iraq Day' to mark the withdrawal of U.S. forces. (Ali Al-Saadi / AFP via Getty Images)

Maliki called for Iraqis to unite, and said the country's days of dictatorship and one-party rule were behind it, even as rival politicians have accused him of centralizing decision-making power.

Speaking at a ceremony attended by several ministers and top security officials at the Al-Shaab stadium complex in central Baghdad, Maliki said Dec. 31 was "a feast for all Iraqis" and marked "the day Iraq became sovereign".

"I announce today, the 31st of December, which witnessed the completion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces, to be a national day," Maliki said. "We call it Iraq Day."

"Today, you are raising the Iraqi flag across the nation, and unifying under that flag. Today, Iraq becomes free and you are the masters."

He continued: "The withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq returns the country to normality. That makes targeting civilians, police, the army and other security forces, or carrying out any sabotage against infrastructure a huge betrayal, and that puts those who commit these acts in the corner of the enemy."

U.S. troops completed their withdrawal from Iraq on Dec. 18, nearly nine years after Washington launched a controversial war to oust dictator Saddam Hussein.

At their peak, American forces in Iraq numbered nearly 170,000 and had as many as 505 bases. Now, just 157 remain, under the authority of the embassy, to train Iraqi forces to use equipment purchased from the United States.

In 2008, Baghdad and Washington signed a deal which called for all U.S. soldiers to leave Iraq by the end of 2011.

Efforts to keep a significant American military training mission beyond year-end fell through when the two sides failed to agree on a deal to guarantee U.S. troops immunity from prosecution.

The Iraqi premier also told his countrymen that they should "be totally confident that Iraq has rid itself forever of dictatorship and the rule of one party, one sect, and one ruler."

Maliki's remarks came amid a festering political standoff in Iraq, with authorities having charged Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi with running a death squad and Maliki calling for Sunni Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlak to be fired.

Mutlak and Hashemi's Sunni-backed Iraqiya party has boycotted parliament and cabinet meetings. Hashemi, who is holed up in the autonomous Kurdish region, rejects the accusations, while Mutlak has decried the Shiite-led government as a dictatorship.

The support of Iraqiya - which narrowly won a 2010 poll and garnered most of its seats in Sunni areas, is seen as vital to preventing a resurgence of violence.

The Sunni Arab minority dominated Saddam's regime and was the bedrock of the anti-U.S. insurgency after the 2003 invasion.

Turkish Leaders Struggle with Airstrike Aftermath

ANKARA - Turkey's government is struggling to contain the fall-out from a blunder in which the military killed 35 young Kurdish smugglers in an air strike they thought was directed at Kurdish separatist militants.

KURDISH PEOPLE MOURN for victims of a Turkish air raid at the cemetery of Gulyazi Village, Sirnak province, near the Iraqi border on Dec. 30. (Bulent Kilic / AFP via Getty Images)

The conservative, Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) has followed previous administrations in cracking down on the separatist rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). But it is no closer to finding a solution to the complaints of the country's substantial Kurdish minority.

Turkey's military said they directed Dec. 28's air strike near the Iraqi border against what they thought was a group of around 40 fighters from the PKK, with whom they have been involved in a bitter, decades-long conflict.

When the dust cleared, however, the bodies were of local villagers - most of them between the ages of 16 and 20 - who had been smuggling cigarettes and fuel across the border.

Grief-stricken, enraged local villagers had denounced the attack within hours; local television pictures showed them using mules to carry the dead down off the snow-covered mountains in Uludere district.

But while the AKP conceded Dec. 29 that there could have been a blunder, it took until Dec. 30 for Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to unequivocally acknowledge the mistake.

Expressing regret for the killing of 35 Kurds, he offered his condolences to the victims for what he described as an "unfortunate and distressing" incident.

At the same time, however, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu insisted that Turkey was engaged an anti-terrorist operation against the PKK while respecting the rule of law. The blunder Dec. 28 had been an exception, he said.

Media commentators and opposition politicians were scathing of the AKP's handling of the crisis.

"The state bombed its own people," was the headline in the liberal daily Taraf.

Fikret Bila, a columnist with Milliyet newspaper, remarked on CNN-Turk television: "The government is always readying to take credit, notably for economic successes.

"One wonders why no one has apologized on behalf of the government."

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), called for the government to act - and for those responsible to resign.

The outrage within the Kurdish community itself expressed itself in protests in several cities Dec. 29 and 30, with some protesters clashing with the police.

Down near the border with Iraq, some bereaved villagers dismissed talk of an error, accusing the army of having deliberately targeted the civilians. The PKK itself made the same case.

"This massacre was no accident ... It was organized and planned," Bahoz Erdal of the PKK's armed wing said in a statement.

The PKK took up arms in Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives. But clashes between the rebels and the army have escalated in recent months, with Turkey raiding PKK bases inside northern Iraq in October in response to an attack that killed 24 soldiers in the border town of Cukurca.

"The government cannot, must not have this affair covered up," Rusen Cakir,a specialist on the Kurdish issue, wrote in the Vatan newspaper. "To do so would only spur the PKK on to step up its attacks."

After he came to power in 2002, Erdogan pushed through important reforms granting greater rights to the Kurds, who make up 15 million of the nation's 73 million population. But after the heavy losses suffered by Turkey's army in October, he bowed to public pressure and hardened his line against the Kurdish rebels.

Resolving the Kurdish conflict remains one of the toughest challenges facing Turkey, the world's 17th-largest economy and a major regional player. The air strike Dec. 28 only made that task harder.

U.S. Forces Leave Iraq After Nine Years

IRAQ-KUWAIT BORDER, Kuwait - The last U.S. forces left Iraq and entered Kuwait on Dec. 18, nearly nine years after launching a divisive war to oust Saddam Hussein, and just as the oil-rich country grapples with renewed political deadlock.

SOLDIERS WAVE TO those arriving in the last American military convoy to depart Iraq after crossing over the border into Kuwait on Dec. 18 in Camp Virginia, Kuwait. (Mario Tama / Getty Images)

The last of roughly 110 vehicles carrying 500-odd troops mostly from the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, crossed the border at 7:38 a.m., leaving just 157 military trainers at the U.S. embassy, in a country where there were once nearly 170,000 troops on 505 bases. It ended a war that left tens of thousands of Iraqis and nearly 4,500 American soldiers dead, many more wounded, and 1.75 million Iraqis displaced, after the U.S.-led invasion unleashed brutal sectarian killing.

"It feels good, it feels real good" to be out of Iraq, Sgt. Duane Austin told AFP after getting out of his vehicle in Kuwait. "It's been a pretty long year - it's time to go home now."

The 27-year-old father-of-two, who completed three tours in Iraq, added: "It's been a long time, coming and going. It's been pretty hard on all of us ... (It will) be a nice break to get back, knowing that it's over with now."

The last vehicles transporting U.S. troops out of Iraq left the recently handed over Imam Ali Base outside the southern city of Nasiriyah at 2:30 a.m. to make the 220-mile journey south to the Kuwaiti border.

They travelled down a mostly deserted route, which U.S. forces paid Shiite tribal sheikhs to inspect regularly to ensure no attacks could take place. Five hours later, they crossed a berm at the Kuwaiti border lit with floodlights and ringed with barbed wire.

"I am proud - all Iraqis should be proud, like all those whose country has been freed," 26-year-old baker Safa, who did not want to give his real name, told AFP in Baghdad. "The Americans toppled Saddam, but our lives since then have gone backward."

A 50-year-old mother-of-four who gave her name only as Umm Mohammed, or mother of Mohammed, added: "I don't think we can ever forgive the Americans for what they did to us."

The withdrawal comes as Iraq struggles with renewed political deadlock as its main Sunni-backed bloc said it was boycotting parliament and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shiite, moved to oust one of his deputies, a Sunni Arab.

Maliki sent an official letter to parliament urging MPs to withdraw confidence in Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlak, a member of the secular Iraqiya party, after Mutlak accused him of being "worse than Saddam," an aide to the premier said.

Later on Dec. 18, Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi, also a Sunni and an Iraqiya member, was escorted off a plane at Baghdad airport as security forces arrested two of his bodyguards on "terrorism charges," officials and a witnesses said.

Earlier, a security official told AFP that 10 of Hashemi's guards had been detained and were being questioned in connection with terror attacks.

A day earlier, Iraqiya, which emerged as the largest bloc in inconclusive 2010 polls but was unable to form a government, said it was boycotting parliament in protest at what it said was Maliki's centralization of power.

Iraqiya, which controls 82 of the 325 seats in parliament and nine ministerial posts, has not, however, pulled out of Iraq's national unity government.

It said the government's actions, which it claimed included stationing tanks and armored vehicles outside the houses of its leaders in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, "drives people to want to rid themselves of the strong arm of central power as far as the constitution allows them to."

Provincial authorities in three Sunni-majority provinces north and west of Baghdad have all moved take up the option of similar autonomy to that enjoyed by Kurds in north Iraq, drawing an angry response from Maliki.

Key political issues such as reform of the mostly state-run economy and a law to regulate and organize the lucrative energy sector also remain unresolved, to say nothing of an explosive territorial dispute between Arabs and Kurds centered around the northern oil hub of Kirkuk.

Dec. 18's completion of the withdrawal brings to a close nearly nine years of American military involvement in Iraq, beginning with a "shock and awe" campaign in 2003 to oust Saddam, which many in Washington believed would see U.S. forces conclude their mission within months.

But key decisions taken at the time have since been widely criticized as fuelling what became a bloody Sunni Arab insurgency, in particular dissolving the Iraqi army and purging the civil service of all members of Saddam's Baath Party, including lower-rankers.

The insurgency eventually sparked communal bloodshed, particularly after the February 2006 bombing of a Shiite shrine in the predominantly Sunni city of Samarra by al-Qaida. More than 100,000 Iraqis have been reported killed in violence since the invasion, according to British NGO Iraq Body Count.

The bloodshed was only quelled when then-U.S. president George W. Bush ordered a "surge" of American troops to Iraq, and Sunni tribal militias sided with U.S. forces against al-Qaida.

Baghdad and Washington signed a 2008 pact that called for the withdrawal by the end of this year, and in the summer of last year, the U.S. declared a formal end to combat operations while maintaining fewer than 50,000 troops in Iraq.

The U.S. embassy will now retain just 157 U.S. soldiers, for training Iraqi forces, and a group of Marines for security.

Attacks in Iraq remain common but violence has declined significantly since its peak.

Iraq has a 900,000-strong security force that many believe is capable of maintaining internal security but lacks the means to defend its borders, airspace and territorial waters.

Some also fear a return to bloody sectarianism, doubt the strength of Iraq's political structures, and feel that Maliki has entrenched his powerbase to the detriment of Iraq's minorities.