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Iraq Faces New Challenges In 2008

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By PATRICK QUINN, The Associated Press

Published: December 24, 2007

BAGHDAD - The U.S. ambassador to Iraq said Sunday that recent successes such as reducing violence have created a new set of challenges for 2008 - the most important being the return of refugees and the struggle for political reconciliation.

An equally significant factor, Ryan Crocker said, will be whether neighboring Iran uses its considerable influence among the Shiite majority to ease the strife that has torn this country apart - or instead creates further instability.

"The positive developments in the latter half of 2007 represent the challenges of 2008," Crocker told reporters in Baghdad. "There will be the ongoing challenges of reconciliation, and if there is a single overarching issue that will determine the future of this country that is it for me in one word."

Others include the return of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who have fled to Jordan, Syria and beyond - a repatriation that Crocker said must be handled carefully "so it doesn't sow the seeds of new tension and instability."

Equally important will be finding how to reintegrate the growing numbers of Sunni Arabs joining volunteer groups funded by the United States to fight al-Qaida in Iraq. There are about 70,000 Sunni irregulars in the groups known as Awakening Councils - dubbed by the U.S. military as Concerned Local Citizens.

The groups, along with a surge of U.S. troops into Iraq and a decision by firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to stand down his Mahdi Army militia for six months, have contributed to a 60 percent drop in violence since June.

But the Shiite-dominated government is deeply concerned about the groups, many of which are made up of former Sunni insurgents who once battled the American forces and their Shiite allies.

In other developments, a roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol in Baghdad killed two civilians Sunday, as attacks claimed the lives of at least five people.

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