As Barack Obama prepares to visit Iraq, people across the country and politicians are divided over the presumptive Democratic nominee's plan to withdraw US troops in 16 months if be becomes president.

"Iraq will be in hell and we will find ourselves at the gates of civil war," said Maied Rashed al-Nuaemi, a provincial council member in Mosul, where forces are struggling against the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq. "The American presence in Iraq is the safety valve to keep this country quiet. If they withdraw, that will lead to calamity."