ARLINGTON, Va. — The insurgency in Iraq will last for years after U.S. troops leave, the top U.S. general in Iraq said Friday.
"It’s not going to end, OK. There will always be some sort of a low-level insurgency in Iraq for the next five, 10, 15 years," said Gen. Raymond Odierno. "The issue is, what is the level of that insurgency and can the Iraqis handle it with their own forces and with their government."
While there is still an insurgency, it can be hard to tell the difference between insurgents and criminals, Odierno said during a news conference.
"It’s getting harder and harder to lump them into groups, because what you have is you have people who just conduct things for money," he said.
Combat operations in Iraq are slated to end in 2010, after which a force of between 35,000 and 50,000 U.S. troops will remain, Odierno said. All U.S. troops are slated to leave Iraq by the end of 2011 under a security agreement between the two countries.
Overall, security trends in Iraq are positive, but a string of suicide bombings in the past few weeks show that the situation remains fragile, Odierno said.
The Iraqis still need to reach solutions on a number of hot-button issues.
"These are political issues that have to be resolved and continue to be resolved in Iraq, and as long as they keep working toward these — and we believe they are — we think that then the level of security will continue to improve and we think that by the end of 2011 they will be able to handle it themselves," Odierno said.
Most U.S. troops are expected to leave Iraqi cities after June 30, although it has yet to be decided whether they will remain in the volatile city of Mosul.
Some U.S. troops will remain in Iraqi cities beyond the end of June as liaisons to Joint Security Stations and as embedded advisory transition teams, Odierno said. He wouldn’t put an exact figure of how many troops that might be.
"I would say it’s probably 20 percent of what it is now," he said.
Also Friday, Odierno said the name "Multi-National Force-Iraq" is likely to change after the British pull out of Iraq this summer, leaving only a few hundred coalition partners.
When asked if the new name would be U.S. Forces-Iraq, Odierno replied, "Probably. But again, that’s not been approved yet."
