Obama: Combat mission in Iraq to end this month

ATLANTA - US President Barack Obama vowed on Monday to make good on his promise to end US combat operations in Iraq by the end of August, despite a dangerous political deadlock in Baghdad and a surge in militant violence last month.

Speaking to the Disabled American Veterans group in Atlanta even as he struggles with waning support for the war in Afghanistan, Obama sought to underscore progress in winding down the US role in the unpopular Iraq war.

With congressional elections looming in November, it was a reminder to liberal Democrats whose opposition to the Iraq war helped sweep him into office that he was determined to fulfill his promise to "bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end."