VINEYARD HAVEN: Iraq is capable of meeting its own security needs, the White House said on Thursday, as the United States finalised preparations to remove its combat troops from country.

Asked in the aftermath of a bloody attack Al Qaeda attack on Wednesday that killed 53 people and wounded 250 more whether the Iraqi government is able to maintain its own security, White House deputy spokesman Bill Burton insisted it is, as he condemned “the people who are trying to derail the march to democracy that Iraq has been on.”

“The president is confident that the effort to transition from a combat role in Iraq to Iraqi forces being in charge of their own security has been a successful one, and they are capable of taking on their own security,” President Barack Obama’s spokesman told reporters. —AFP