WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama planned to declare on Friday that the United States would end its bloody and costly combat mission in Iraq by late summer of 2010, but a dramatic force reduction was not expected until after the country’s national elections at the end of this year, senior administration officials said.

The president was to announce the Aug. 31, 2010, conclusion of the mission Friday morning at the Marine Corps base at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

Even with the end of the combat mission, three months later than Obama pledged during his presidential campaign, a force numbering between 35,000 to 50,000 Americans forces will stay behind, with the final troops not slated to leave until Dec. 31, 2011.

There were no assurances that the residual force would not be pulled into battle should Sunni Muslim insurgent holdouts or disaffected Shiite Muslims resume wide-scale fighting.

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