SAVE MONEY ON TRAVEL DEALS

Commanders are sticking more closely to the deadline for withdrawing U.S. combat forces from cities than they expected a few weeks ago, The New York Times reported Friday.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has called the pullout a "great victory", and the day has been declared a national holiday.

U.S. commanders said they've complied with many Iraqi requests -- including the closure of outposts they would prefer remain open -- because they thought to do otherwise would be counterproductive, considering the political capital Maliki had invested in the deadline, the Times reported.

The security agreement between Iraq and the United States that set the deadline for withdrawing from the cities, and from the country by 2011, gives U.S. commanders discretion to maintain operations. But U.S. commanders have deferred to Iraqi decisions about the location and duties of remaining U.S. military personnel, the Times said.

"We will be gone in whatever way the Iraqi government tells us to be gone", said Lt. Col. Timothy Karcher, commander of the forces departing Baghdad's Sadr City.

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