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thedrifter
09-05-06, 01:26 PM
September 11, 2006
Assuming control
Iraqi forces to take over Dhi Qar

BAGHDAD — Iraqi forces should have control over most of the country by the end of the year, the prime minister said Aug. 31, a day when at least 54 people were killed across the country, the vast majority in a barrage of attacks in Baghdad.

In the most severe example, at least 46 people were killed and 136 wounded in the space of half an hour in eastern Baghdad neighborhoods in a series of attacks, including two car bombs, a roadside bomb, and several rocket and mortar attacks.

The bloodshed occurred during a violent week that left hundreds of Iraqis dead.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Iraqi forces will assume responsibility for Dhi Qar province in the south in September, making it the second of Iraq’s 18 provinces local forces would take control over.

“This makes us optimistic and proud, because we managed to fulfill our promise,” al-Maliki said. In the south, Iraqi authorities took over Muthanna province from the British in July.


“This year will witness the handing over of other provinces, and we hope that by the end of the year our security forces will take over most of the Iraqi provinces,” he said.

The Defense Ministry said in a statement that on Sept. 2 it would sign a memorandum with coalition forces “about strategic control and operations.”

Dhi Qar is populated mainly by Shiite Muslims. Compared to more volatile areas, such as Baghdad and Anbar province in the west, Dhi Qar has been spared much of the sectarian violence.

However, U.S. commanders have said recently they are worried about the growing influence of Shiite militias in the area, many of whom receive support from Iran, they say.

Handing over territory from the coalition to Iraqi control is a key part of any eventual drawdown of U.S. troops in the country.

On Aug. 30, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Gen. George Casey, said Iraqi troops were on course to take over security from U.S.-led coalition forces over the next 12-18 months, with little coalition help.

President Bush insisted that American troops must remain in Iraq until the country’s forces are capable of full control.

“If America were to pull out before Iraq could defend itself, the consequences would be absolutely predictable, and absolutely disastrous,” Bush said as he began a series of pre-election speeches in the U.S.

“We would be handing Iraq over to our worst enemies — Saddam’s former henchmen, armed groups with ties to Iran and al-Qaida terrorists from all over the world who would suddenly have a base of operations far more valuable than Afghanistan under the Taliban,” he said.

Baghdad murder rate drops

Despite the rash of violence in Iraq over the week ending Sept. 1, U.S. officials have lauded the results of a major security crackdown in the capital that they say has resulted in a dramatic drop in sectarian killings. They reported that the murder rate in Baghdad dropped almost 50 percent in August compared to July, but that figure could not be independently confirmed.

The crackdown by Iraqi and U.S. forces began Aug. 7 and targets some of the capital’s most problematic neighborhoods.

In the past, similar operations have lowered violence for short periods of time, but attacks then escalate after American forces leave.

In the most deadly attacks Aug. 31 in mostly Shiite neighborhoods, a car bomb at a market killed 16 people and injured 41, while another behind a telephone exchange building killed eight people and injured 24.

A bomb inside a building left 12 people dead, while mortar rounds in another neighborhood killed seven.

— The Associated Press

Ellie