Al Qaeda in Iraq kills 23, bringing July death toll to 280 - Obama ended the war "honorably"

Two car bomb explosions killed 23 people and wounded 47 in Iraq on Tuesday, bringing the July death toll in the country to at least 280, the AFP reported.

Last week, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq warned that the militant network had embarked on a new offensive and was returning to strongholds from which it was driven from while the American military was there.

Nevertheless, President Obama, speaking the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention on Monday, proclaimed that he had "pledged to end the war in Iraq honorably, and that’s what we’ve done..."

The President added: "We brought our troops home responsibly. They left... knowing they gave Iraqis a chance to forge their own future."