Majority of U.S. military equipment moved out of Iraq: report

WASHINGTON, Aug. 6, Xinhua: Nearly 60 percent of U.S. military equipment has been moved out of Iraq and the remaining is on track, as the deadline for U.S. forces to be out of Iraq approaches, the American Forces Press Service reported Friday. “The mission is looking good,” Air Force Maj. John Rozsnyai, who heads up the U.S. Transportation Command’s joint planning team for the effort, told the service in an interview this week. “ Everything we’re seeing is tracking well.” To date, 1.7 million pieces of military equipment have been moved out of Iraq since the drawdown began Sept. 1 after combat operations ceased, Rozsnyai said.

Transcom has five months to bring home the remaining troops and the last 1 million pieces of military equipment.

“Part of the equipment uncertainty is whether the Iraqi government will want the United States to stay longer,” Rozsnyai said.

U.S. military forces are to pull out completely from Iraq by the end of 2011, according to a security agreement signed in 2008 between Baghdad and Washington.

The U.S. is now anxiously waiting for the Iraqi leaders’ decision on whether they want American troops to stay in the country beyond year’s end. U.S. Central Command officials will decide whether equipment goes back to the United States, to the Iraqis for their forces, or is sent to Afghanistan to help the war effort there, Rozsnyai said.