IRAQ:It should have been a rare good news day for Iraq's government, as it took control of a fourth province in the south, writes Ross Colvinin Amara
The car bombs that killed up to 200 people in Baghdad yesterday overshadowed what was meant to be a rare good news day for Iraq's government, as it took control of security in a fourth province in the more stable Shia south.
Prime minister Nuri al-Maliki and US-led forces in the country are anxious to show that four years after the 2003 invasion which toppled Saddam Hussein, Iraqis are finally taking control of security for themselves.
It has been a painfully slow process that has been dramatically hindered by the wave of sectarian violence that erupted a year ago and has since killed tens of thousands, raising fears of all-out civil war.
The violence has hampered efforts to build a new Iraqi army and police force that will pave the way for US-led forces to pull out. Although US and Iraqi officials talk up the abilities of the Iraqi army, it has little combat experience and is still dependent on US firepower and logistical support.
Maysan province yesterday became only the fourth to be handed over to the Iraqis, out of a total of 18. But it lies in the south, a region that has been largely untouched by the bloodshed between majority Shias and minority Sunnis, although there are power struggles between rival groups.
"There are different security issues and different security levels," said Iraq's national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie in the provincial capital Amara when asked why British forces were handing over security in Maysan when thousands more American soldiers were heading to Baghdad.
He said a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign forces, as demanded by radical anti-American Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, would be considered only once certain conditions were met, mainly the training and equipping of Iraq's police and army.
Mr Rubaie was speaking to journalists on a dusty parade ground after a handover ceremony at a base in Amara that the British called Sparrowhawk before they pulled out most of their forces last year and repositioned them along Maysan's border with Iran.
The base had been heavily mortared by Shia militias. With British troops no longer a sitting target in the base, violence in Amara has been greatly reduced.
Iraqi soldiers and police proudly paraded their vehicles in front of local tribal leaders, politicians and British and American officers in a ceremony aimed at showing Iraqis were taking another step towards full control of security.
Mr Rubaie said the three provinces in Iraq's stable Kurdish north would be transferred next, with the rest to follow "by the end of the year", including the vast western Anbar province that is the heartland of the Sunni insurgency, and Baghdad, where a US-backed offensive is under way to curb violence.
That timetable has been pushed back before because of the violence and the slow pace of standing up the Iraqi security forces. Mr Maliki said late last year he hoped the handover would be completed by mid-year.
US Maj-Gen Kurt Cichowski, who also attended the ceremony, said of the new timetable: "I would not say it is unrealistic but it will be a challenge." One indicator of that challenge was Mr Rubaie's helicopter trip to Amara from Baghdad, 365km (230 miles) to the north.
His British air force Merlin, a troop-carrying helicopter, was forced to bank sharply and swoop low over orchards and fields repeatedly during the 90-minute flight to thwart any possible attack from gunmen lurking in the groves.
- (Reuters)