The War in Iraq Latest developments

President Bush, who is vacationing at his ranch in Texas, spoke by secure video Friday with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to continue work on a plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq by 2011. The deal being discussed sets a course for American combat troops to pull out of major Iraqi cities by next June, with a broader exit two years later from the long and costly war that began in March 2003. Both U.S. and Iraqi officials reiterated that the dates were hypothetical and that the departure of troops was subject to Iraqi national security and would be decided jointly by Iraq and the United States.

The agreement, which must be approved by the Iraqi parliament, is to be circulated among Iraqi political leaders and presented to parliament when lawmakers reconvene Sept. 9 after their summer break.

In Baghdad, debate over the deal has reignited the rhetoric coming from Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who denounced the plan Friday for not setting a firm date for a U.S. withdrawal. At weekly prayer service in al-Sadr’s Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City and across the country, chants of “No to the agreement!” rang out through loudspeakers positioned along the street. Worshippers responded with applause and repeated the chant. Al-Sadrist preachers said any plan struck with the Americans was a blow to Iraq’s sovereignty.

There are about 140,000 U.S. forces presently in Iraq, according to United States Central Command, and more than 4,100 American troops have been killed there. The estimated cost of the war so far is over $547 billion, according to the National Priorities Project.

Combined dispatches