By Patrick Quinn
The Associated Press, 24 May 2006
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Wednesday he believed Iraqi forces were capable of taking over security around the country within 18 months, but he did not mention a timetable for U.S.-led coalition forces to leave.
In Washington, the White House said before a meeting between President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair that it was premature to talk about troop withdrawals.
The killing of at least 18 people around Iraq was a reminder of the lack of security in a country where drive-by shootings and roadside bombings are so commonplace they fail to elicit any official reaction.
The U.S. military announced that a soldier was killed in action, and Iraqi police said they found the bodies of nine people who had been tortured. The slayings pointed to the sectarian death squads in Baghdad and Iraq's major cities.
"Our forces are capable of taking over the security in all Iraqi provinces within a year-and-a-half," al-Maliki said in a written statement, in which he acknowledged that security forces needed more recruits, training and equipment.
His comments came as Sunni Arab and Shiite political leaders expressed hope that compromise candidates would be found to head the defense and interior ministries by Saturday.
A firm hand guiding the two ministries could lay the groundwork for shifting security responsibilities from U.S.-led forces to the Iraqi army and police. U.S. officials have conceded that could take longer than Iraqi officials wish.
The violence in Iraq and the need for coalition forces will be a primary topic when Bush and Blair meet Thursday. Both leaders have dropped sharply in the polls and are under pressure to make troop cutbacks.
"I do not believe that you're going to hear the president or the prime minister say we're going to be out in one year, two years, four years," White House spokesman Tony Snow said. "I just don't think you're going to get any specific prediction of troops withdrawals."
Iraq's armed forces and police number about 254,000 and should reach about 273,000 by year's end. That, according to al-Maliki, is when "responsibility for much of Iraq's territorial security should have been transferred to Iraqi control" — except for Anbar province and Baghdad, two of the most violent areas.
Al-Maliki and Blair said Monday that Iraqi security forces would start assuming full responsibility for some provinces and cities next month. They declined to set a date for a coalition withdrawal.
However, handing over security responsibilities to the Iraqis does not necessarily mean that significant numbers of U.S.-led forces will start returning home. Instead, plans call for them to move from cities to large coalition bases — where they will be on call if needed.
The Iraqi army needs to recruit at least 5,000 troops in Anbar, the western province that U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad acknowledged is not fully under coalition or Iraqi government control.
"I believe that parts of Anbar are under the control of terrorists and insurgents. But as far as the country as a whole is concerned, it is the coalition forces, along with Iraqi forces, who are in control," Khalilzad told CNN.
The U.S. Army has said it wants make up the shortfall in Anbar with locally recruited troops, but such a move probably will not be possible unless the Defense Ministry is controlled by a Sunni Arab.
"Negotiations are under way in order to reach a decision regarding the appointment of the ministers of defense and interior. Within the coming two days, the decision will be made," Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the main Sunni Arab party, the Iraqi Accordance Front, told The Associated Press.
Sunni Arabs also have sought the ministry as a counterbalance to the Shiite-run Interior Ministry, which many members of the minority blame for failing to disband militias they say are responsible for sectarian death squads.
Al-Dulaimi said his coalition presented six Defense Ministry nominees for vetting and made it clear that Sunni Arabs want an interior minister "who is not linked to militias."
Shiite deputies said a seven-member selection committee failed to agree on a candidate but would keep meeting daily and hoped to make a choice by Saturday, the day before parliament convenes. The 275-member body will have to approve any candidates.
A U.S. Army soldier died Tuesday when his patrol was attacked by small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades during an operation to clear roadside bombs south of Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad, the military said.
In Wednesday's worst drive-by shooting, gunmen killed Adel Issa, of Diyala's provincial council, and two bodyguards in northern Iraq.
In Baghdad, 10 drive-by shootings killed 14 people: Hussein Ahmed Rashid, a member of Iraq's national tennis team, and two of his friends; a college student; two day laborers; a police officer; two street vendors; a university professor; two taxi drivers; a builder; and a grocery store owner, police said.
In other violence, two roadside bombs in Baghdad wounded nine Iraqis, including two soldiers, and gunmen killed an Iraqi soldier at a checkpoint near the U.S. military base north of Baghdad, officials said.
A university student was killed and four others were wounded in a drive by-shooting in Mosul, police said.
Baghdad police found the bodies of two Iraqis who had been shot in the head, Hussein said.
In Dayera, a rural area 35 miles south of Baghdad, police found the bodies of seven Iraqis shot through the head, police Capt. Muthana Khalid said.
Associated Press reporters Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this report.
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Citation: Patrick Quinn. "Iraq PM: Forces capable of securing nation," The Associated Press, 24 May 2006.
Original URL: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060524/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq
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