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Iraqi Forces To Take Control Of Karbala

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By KIM GAMEL, The Associated Press

Published: October 28, 2007

BAGHDAD - U.S. forces will turn over security to Iraqi authorities in the southern Shiite province of Karbala on Monday, the American commander for the area said, despite fighting between rival militia factions that has killed dozens.

Karbala will become only 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.

But the target date has slipped repeatedly, highlighting the difficulties in developing Iraqi police forces and the slow pace of economic and political progress in areas still troubled by daily violence.

A bomb struck a mainly Shiite town southeast of Baghdad on Saturday for the second time in less than a week, the deadliest attack on a day in which at least 23 people were killed or found dead.

In northern Iraq, clashes broke out between al-Qaida in Iraq fighters and a rival Sunni group near the volatile city of Samarra, and police said 16 militants were killed.

The fighting broke out after calls from imams at local mosques to expel al-Qaida from the area, labeling them as 'false mujahedeens' or false holy warriors, according to a provincial police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

In another bold attack, gunmen abducted a 27-year-old member of the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party in the northern city of Mosul while he was waiting to have his car repaired. His body was found hours later, and three of the party's guards were ambushed and killed when they arrived to collect it, police said.

Also Saturday, the U.S. military said an American soldier was killed Thursday during small-arms fire in the Salahuddin province, a mainly Sunni area north of Baghdad.

Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, who leads the 3rd Infantry Division, said the Iraqis were ready to assume full control of security in Karbala province, home to shrines of two major Shiite saints, Imam Abbas and Imam Hussein. U.S. troops would remain ready to step in if help were needed.

Lynch dismissed concerns about Shiite rivalries in the region, two months after clashes between militiamen erupted during a major pilgrimage in the provincial capital, also called Karbala, left at least 52 people dead.

Lynch, who commands a volatile mix of Sunni and Shiite 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.

'During the past days, our forces were able to confront and chase armed groups without the help of the multinational forces. We were able to restore security by our own. This shows that we can work independently from the multinational forces,' he said.

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 convert. In May, the Kurdish regional government assumed security responsibility for the largely peaceful Kurdish autonomous region of northern Iraq: Dahuk, Irbil and Sulaimaniyah provinces.

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