Pat Dollard

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WASHINGTON (AP) – The top general in Iraq is sending home thousands more U.S. troops by the end of October as the American military pulls back from the six-year war. Army Gen. Ray Odierno said in remarks prepared for a congressional hearing Wednesday that the number of U.S. soldiers in Iraq will total about 120,000 over the next month.

He said that will mean about 4,000 fewer troops than are in Iraq now—about the size of an Army brigade.

“As we go forward, we will thin our lines across Iraq in order to reduce the risk and sustain stability through a deliberate transition of responsibilities to the Iraqi security forces,” Odierno said in a statement he was to deliver before the House Armed Services Committee.

A copy of the testimony was obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.

A Defense Department official confirmed Odierno planned to announce the long-anticipated drawdown at the House hearing.

In his eight-page statement, Odierno cited data showing that the monthly number of attacks in Iraq have dramatically dropped over the last two years—from more than 4,000 in August 2007 to about 600 last month. He also said that far fewer al-Qaida and foreign fighters remain in Iraq, and most of those who are left are criminals and disenfranchised Iraqis who have been recruited by what Odierno described as a “small ideological core” of insurgents.

Despite cautious optimism, Odierno’s outlook of the nation he called an enduring U.S. interest was far from rosy.

He predicted several looming problems as U.S. troops prepare to end combat missions by September 2010 and leave Iraq at the end of 2011.

A pair of truck bombings Aug. 19 at Iraq’s finance and foreign ministries, which killed about 100 people in Baghdad, revealed “a clear security lapse,” Odierno said.