WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama said yesterday that a string of spectacular deadly bombings in Iraq were a cause for concern, but the political system was functioning and violence was low compared to a year ago. “Although you’ve seen some spectacular bombings in Iraq that are … a legitimate cause of concern, civilian deaths, incidents of bombings, et cetera, remain very low relative to what was going on last year,” Obama told a news conference marking his first 100 days in office. Speaking on a day when twin car bombs in Baghdad killed 41 people, the U.S. leader expressed confidence in the Iraqi government and said the country was not experiencing the levels of violence it had previously.
“You haven’t seen the kinds of huge spikes that you were seeing for a time,” he said. “The political system is holding and functioning in Iraq.”
Obama said he had decided on a course of gradual withdrawal from Iraq in order to continue trying to isolate the remnants of al Qaeda in Iraq.
He expressed confidence that his team on the ground would “be able to work effectively with the Maliki government to create the conditions for an ultimate transfer after the national elections.”
Obama said the Iraqi government still had a lot of work to do on sharing of oil revenues, and fixing provincial powers and boundaries, but the U.S. strategy aimed to provide Baghdad with “sufficient time for them to get that work done.”
