The United States on Thursday handed over formal command of the Iraqi army to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s government, a significant step towards the withdrawal of about 150 000 US-led foreign troops.
Hours before the handover, 14 people were killed in a spate of bomb blasts targeting Iraqi security forces in Baghdad.
”This is the message I have for the terrorists: We will see that you get great punishment wherever you are. There is nothing for you but prison and punishment,” al-Maliki said at a ceremony at the Defence Ministry in Baghdad.
Al-Maliki, a Shi’ite Islamist, expects Iraqi forces to control most of the country’s provinces by the end of the year, but analysts have questioned that timetable.
Iraqi security forces remain heavily dependent on US troops for logistical support to combat a Sunni insurgency and sectarian violence that kills an estimated 100 people a day.
”Today [Thursday] is another important milestone, but we still have a way to go,” US commander General George Casey said, after formally handing over control of the eighth Iraqi division to al-Maliki.
Nine other divisions will be transferred in the coming months in a timetable to be set by al-Maliki, US officials say.
In Thursday’s violence, two suicide car bombers killed 13 people and wounded 27 in Baghdad.
The first blast killed 10 people and wounded 17 near a petrol station allocated for police use. At least 14 cars were damaged as the blast ripped through nearby rush-hour traffic.
The second bomber attacked a police patrol in central Baghdad, killing three people. Two roadside bombs targeting police patrols killed one civilian and wounded four.
Questions have been raised over the preparedness of Iraq’s 130 000-strong army after Shi’ite gunmen in the south killed about 20 Iraqi soldiers in street clashes last month, and the refusal of Shi’ite troops to be deployed in religiously mixed Baghdad to shore up a US-led security clampdown.
Once Iraqi troops take command, their sectarian loyalties will be sorely tested as al-Maliki struggles to contain communal violence that has soared since the bombing of a Shi’ite shrine in February and pushed the country towards full-scale civil war.
Members of the minority Sunni community have accused Shi’ite militias of infiltrating the security forces to carry out sectarian killings.
Late on Wednesday, the government issued a statement saying it had executed 27 ”terrorists” convicted in Iraqi courts for murder and rape. Human rights groups have urged Iraq to abolish the death penalty. — Reuters