Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Washington Times
October 28, 2007
Pg. 1
By Kim Gamel, Associated Press
BAGHDAD--U.S. forces will turn over security to Iraqi authorities in the southern Shi'ite province of Karbala tomorrow, the American commander for the area said, despite fighting between rival militia factions that has killed dozens.
Karbala will become the eighth of Iraq's 18 provinces to revert to Iraqi control, despite President Bush's prediction in January that the Iraqi government would have responsibility for security in all of the provinces by November.
Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, who leads the 3rd Infantry Division, said the Iraqis were ready to assume full control of their own security in Karbala province, home to shrines of two major Shi'ite saints, Imam Abbas and Imam Hussein. U.S. troops remain ready to help if needed.
He dismissed concerns about Shi'ite rivalries in the region, two months after clashes of militiamen battling for power erupted during a major pilgrimage in the provincial capital, also called Karbala, left at least 52 persons dead.
"Of course there's violence in the area, but not nearly of the magnitude that would cause me to be troubled by it," Gen. Lynch said yesterday.
"This place is about a struggle for power and influence and there are indeed inter-Shia rivalries where different groups are trying to be in charge and sometimes they revert to violence, but it's not at the magnitude that's got me concerned," he said during a visit to a patrol base being constructed in Nahrawan, a Shi'ite city of 120,000 on the southeastern edge of Baghdad.
Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, has faced several bombings that have killed dozens of people since the Sunni insurgency began in the late summer of 2003, just months after the U.S.-led invasion in March.
It also was the site of one of the boldest and most sophisticated attacks on U.S. soldiers in the war in Iraq, when gunmen driving American sport utility vehicles, speaking English, wearing U.S. military uniforms and carrying American weapons abducted four U.S. soldiers at the provincial headquarters and later fatally shot them. A fifth soldier was killed in the Jan. 20 attack.
More recently, Karbala has been a focal point for rising tensions throughout the mainly Shi'ite south among rival groups maneuvering for power over the oil-rich area that also profits from religious tourism.
But Gen. Lynch, who commands a volatile mix of Sunni and Shi'ite areas south of Baghdad, said the Iraqis were ready to take over.
"They've established a Karbala operations command that works with the Iraqi prime minister, and when security problems arise it's the Iraqi solution to the problem, not the coalition solution to the problem," he said.
The provincial police chief, Brig. Gen. Raed Shakir, said more than 10,000 Iraqi security forces were "fully prepared" to maintain order.
In January, Mr. Bush announced his new strategy for stabilizing Iraq and his decision to send an additional 30,000 U.S. combat troops to Baghdad and Anbar province. He said at the time, the Iraqi government "plans to take responsibility for security in all of Iraq's provinces by November." The Pentagon later amended that to next March, and then again to at least next July.
Last year, the relatively peaceful southern provinces of Muthanna, Dhi Qar and Najaf were returned to Iraqi security control. In April, Maysan province in the southeast was the fourth to revert.
In May, the Kurdish regional government assumed security responsibility for the largely peaceful Kurdish Autonomous Region of northern Iraq: Dahuk, Irbil and Sulaimaniyah provinces.
In violence yesterday, a bomb struck the mainly Shi'ite town of Jisr Diyala, 10 miles southeast of Baghdad, killing eight persons. It was the second such attack in the town in less than a week.
In northern Iraq, clashes broke out between al Qaeda in Iraq fighters and a rival Sunni group near the volatile city of Samarra, and police said 16 militants were killed.
Also yesterday, the U.S. military announced the death of an American soldier killed Thursday by small arms fire during operations in the Salahuddin province, a mainly Sunni area north of Baghdad.
October 28, 2007
Pg. 1
By Kim Gamel, Associated Press
BAGHDAD--U.S. forces will turn over security to Iraqi authorities in the southern Shi'ite province of Karbala tomorrow, the American commander for the area said, despite fighting between rival militia factions that has killed dozens.
Karbala will become the eighth of Iraq's 18 provinces to revert to Iraqi control, despite President Bush's prediction in January that the Iraqi government would have responsibility for security in all of the provinces by November.
Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, who leads the 3rd Infantry Division, said the Iraqis were ready to assume full control of their own security in Karbala province, home to shrines of two major Shi'ite saints, Imam Abbas and Imam Hussein. U.S. troops remain ready to help if needed.
He dismissed concerns about Shi'ite rivalries in the region, two months after clashes of militiamen battling for power erupted during a major pilgrimage in the provincial capital, also called Karbala, left at least 52 persons dead.
"Of course there's violence in the area, but not nearly of the magnitude that would cause me to be troubled by it," Gen. Lynch said yesterday.
"This place is about a struggle for power and influence and there are indeed inter-Shia rivalries where different groups are trying to be in charge and sometimes they revert to violence, but it's not at the magnitude that's got me concerned," he said during a visit to a patrol base being constructed in Nahrawan, a Shi'ite city of 120,000 on the southeastern edge of Baghdad.
Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, has faced several bombings that have killed dozens of people since the Sunni insurgency began in the late summer of 2003, just months after the U.S.-led invasion in March.
It also was the site of one of the boldest and most sophisticated attacks on U.S. soldiers in the war in Iraq, when gunmen driving American sport utility vehicles, speaking English, wearing U.S. military uniforms and carrying American weapons abducted four U.S. soldiers at the provincial headquarters and later fatally shot them. A fifth soldier was killed in the Jan. 20 attack.
More recently, Karbala has been a focal point for rising tensions throughout the mainly Shi'ite south among rival groups maneuvering for power over the oil-rich area that also profits from religious tourism.
But Gen. Lynch, who commands a volatile mix of Sunni and Shi'ite areas south of Baghdad, said the Iraqis were ready to take over.
"They've established a Karbala operations command that works with the Iraqi prime minister, and when security problems arise it's the Iraqi solution to the problem, not the coalition solution to the problem," he said.
The provincial police chief, Brig. Gen. Raed Shakir, said more than 10,000 Iraqi security forces were "fully prepared" to maintain order.
In January, Mr. Bush announced his new strategy for stabilizing Iraq and his decision to send an additional 30,000 U.S. combat troops to Baghdad and Anbar province. He said at the time, the Iraqi government "plans to take responsibility for security in all of Iraq's provinces by November." The Pentagon later amended that to next March, and then again to at least next July.
Last year, the relatively peaceful southern provinces of Muthanna, Dhi Qar and Najaf were returned to Iraqi security control. In April, Maysan province in the southeast was the fourth to revert.
In May, the Kurdish regional government assumed security responsibility for the largely peaceful Kurdish Autonomous Region of northern Iraq: Dahuk, Irbil and Sulaimaniyah provinces.
In violence yesterday, a bomb struck the mainly Shi'ite town of Jisr Diyala, 10 miles southeast of Baghdad, killing eight persons. It was the second such attack in the town in less than a week.
In northern Iraq, clashes broke out between al Qaeda in Iraq fighters and a rival Sunni group near the volatile city of Samarra, and police said 16 militants were killed.
Also yesterday, the U.S. military announced the death of an American soldier killed Thursday by small arms fire during operations in the Salahuddin province, a mainly Sunni area north of Baghdad.