Iraq violence unabated as coalition quits

Iraqi officials reported that 54 Iraqi soldiers were killed and 150 more wounded in August.

And there was no let-up in the violence on Wednesday as guerillas targeted security forces in Baghdad, Tikrit and Fallujah. At least two police were killed and three injured in the assaults.

But the ongoing violence appeared to have passed US President Barack Obama by.

In a sombre Oval office speech on Tuesday night, he declared it was "time to turn the page" in Iraq.

The president praised US troops for their sacrifices in a war which is believed to have cost the lives of more than a million Iraqi civilians as well as over 4,400 US troops and 179 British soldiers.

Mr Obama insisted that the occupying forces had created "a new beginning" for the country.

Roughly 50,000 US troops will remain in the oil-rich country - ostensibly to train, assist and advise Iraqi troops - until the end of 2011.

And if Iraqi politicians, some of whom have ties to the CIA, request an extension and the US agrees, some troops could remain beyond that.

Seven years after the illegal US-led invasion and overthrow of former president Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist regime, many Iraqi citizens are angry that the formally democratic institutions now in place have not brought about stable government or a significant improvement in living standards.

It is now almost six months since national elections, yet the country's myriad political parties and factions have failed to establish a new administration.

And the interim Islamist-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki continues to preside over continuing power cuts, water shortages and rising fuel prices.

In June the government rationed electricity to less than two hours a day, sparking mass street protests in which two citizens were killed by police and scores wounded.

Baghdadi political analyst Ibrahim al-Sumaidaei said: "The fact that we still have so little electricity after all these years makes people think the government has done nothing for them. "

Politicians must put aside their differences and prioritise "the needs of the people," Mr Sumaidaei insisted.