By NNN-Prensa Latina
Washington : US Senate majority leader Harry Reid says he is preparing a Democrat reply to a recent military report on Iraq to Congress.
Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the US troops in Iraq, defended the current White House strategy and only advised withdrawal of some 30,000 soldiers in the summer of 2008.
Sen. Reid (D, NV) calls the report a continuation of the failed Executive strategy in Iraq, where the US has lost nearly 4,000 soldiers since March 2003.
The senator also voiced Democratic skepticism at the alleged progress described by Petraus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, and announced a House debate for next week to assess the 2008 defense budget and to limit the troops in Iraq.
Other supporters of Reid’s decision and gradual troop withdrawal are Democratic Senators John Kerry (MA), Ben Nelson (NE), Max Baucus (MT) and Ken Salazar (Col.).
Meanwhile, the US Central Command in BAGHDAD, IRAQ Tuesday confirmed the death of eight of its servicemen in this capital, while the Iraqi police reported the killing of three agents by the resistance in Mosul city, northern province of Ninive.
According to the US military, eight soldiers died and 13 others were wounded in an alleged traffic accident in Baghdad on Monday, bringing the number of US servicemen killed in Iraq since the war began in March 2003 to 3,774.
The report on the American losses came as a report on the Iraq war is presented in Washington Tuesday by the chief of US forces in the Arab country, Gen. David Petraeus, and US ambassador in Iraq Ryan Crocker.
Meanwhile, the chief of a police department in Mosul, Gen. Abdelkarim Yaburi, said that insurgents opened fire at a police patrol in Karama neighborhood on Tuesday, killing three policemen.
Another armed group killed a fourth police agent in Yarmuk neighborhood, also in Mosul city, added the police chief.