KUT, Iraq: The US military yesterday handed over security responsibilities for the southern province of Wasit to Iraqi authorities in a move that signals the growing capabilities of the country’s fledgling security forces.
Meanwhile, Iraq wants a security agreement with the US to include a clear ban on US troops using Iraqi territory to attack Iraq’s neighbors, the government spokesman said yesterday, three days after a dramatic US raid on Syria.
Also yesterday, the country’s most influential Shiite cleric expressed concern that Iraqi sovereignty be protected in the pact. Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani wields vast influence among the Shiite majority and his explicit opposition could scuttle the deal.
Government spokesman Ali Al-Dabbagh said the ban was among four proposed amendments to the draft agreement approved by the Cabinet this week and forwarded to the US White House press secretary Dana Perino said US negotiators in Iraq are closely reviewing the new amendments from the Iraqis to see if they are acceptable to the administration.
Wasit province is the 13th of Iraq’s 18 provinces to return to full government control. Iraqi authorities are now in charge of security throughout the mostly Shiite south of Iraq. US forces will remain in the mostly Shiite province to assist the Iraqis when needed.
Iraqi National Security Adviser Mouwaffak Al-Rubaie lauded Wasit’s Iraqi security forces when he addressed the handover ceremony in the provincial capital Kut, 160 kilometers southeast of Baghdad. “Security forces in Wasit from the police and army have reached a reliable level of training and skill that they are able to take over security responsibility in the province.” he said.
Wasit borders Iran and was a stronghold of Moqtada Sadr’s Mehdi Army before US-backed Iraqi forces cracked down on the militia this year. The No. 2 US commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin, told the handover ceremony that Wasit seven months ago saw a weekly average of up to 18 attacks but now goes for weeks without an incident.
The Wasit handover came one day after the government authorized Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki to reopen negotiations with the United States over the draft of security agreement that would allow US forces to stay in Iraq through 2011.
