The new Iraqi prime minister said Monday his forces could be in
charge in most of Iraq by December and officials with visiting
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said all foreign troops may be
gone within four years.
Demonstrating his support for Nuri al-Maliki by flying in just
two days after his national unity government was sworn in, Blair
would not be drawn on deadlines:
"We want to move as fast as we can but it has to be done in a
way that protects the Iraqi people," he told a joint news
conference.
But Maliki said that two British-run provinces in the south
could be handed to Iraqi security forces next month and a statement
by the two governments issued afterwards said: "By the end of this
year, responsibility for much of Iraq's territorial security should
have been transferred to Iraqi control."
Two bomb attacks killed nine people in Baghdad to underline a
new warning from Maliki that Iraq faces "civil war" if his
government fails to rein in "militias" generally code for armed
groups run by fellow Shi'ite Muslims in his cabinet.
The installation after months of sectarian and ethnic argument
of Iraq's first full-term government since the US and British
invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein in 2003 has focused attention
on plans for pulling out some 150,000 foreign troops.
"It's been longer and harder than any of us would have wanted it
to be but this is a new beginning," said Blair, who has spent much
political capital on the controversial war.
A senior British official accompanying him said that London
hoped all but some non-combatant foreign soldiers could be
withdrawn by the time of the next Iraqi election in late 2009.
"The aim is to take Iraq to a position where the multinational
force is able to withdraw during its (the government's) period in
office," the official said.
"During the four years, the present role and structure of the
multinational force will change and come to an end."
Maliki acknowledged that 325,000 Iraqi troops and police due to
be recruited by December would need further training. There are now
264,000 of them.
Moving gradually through Iraq's 18 provinces, overall control of
security could pass into Iraqi hands by the end of 2006, Maliki
said a more ambitious target than US and British commanders have
been prepared to mention privately.
Only Baghdad and the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Anbar in the
west might remain under US command, he suggested, with the southern
Shi'ite provinces of Samawa and Amara moving from British control
as early as next month.
(China Daily May 23, 2006)
