General: Iraq at its quietest since '04

AP on Yahoo ^ | 12/16/07 | Patrick Quinn - ap

[NormsRevenge]

BAGHDAD - Violence in Iraq is at its lowest levels since the first year of the American invasion, finally opening a window for reconciliation among rival sects, the second-ranking U.S. general said Sunday as Iraqi forces formally took control of security across half the country.

Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, the man responsible for the ground campaign in Iraq, said that the first six months of 2007 were probably the most violent period since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. The past six months, however, had seen some of the lowest levels of violence since the conflict began, Odierno said, attributing the change to an increase in both American troops and better-trained Iraqi forces.

"I feel we are back in '03 and early '04. Frankly I was here then, and the environment is about the same in terms of security in my opinion," he said. "What is different from then is that the Iraqi security forces are significantly more mature."

Violence killed at least 27 Iraqis on Sunday — 16 of them members of a U.S.-backed neighborhood patrol killed in clashes with al-Qaida in a volatile province neighboring Baghdad. Thirty-five al-Qaida fighters also died in that fighting, Iraqi officials said.

Odierno said Anbar province, once plagued by violence, only recorded 12 attacks in the past week, down from an average of 26 per week over the past three months.

"The violence last week was the lowest ever," he said of Anbar.

"So that kind of defines 2007 very simply. A long hard fight and a lot of sacrifice by a lot of soldiers, Marines and airmen to get there," Odierno said.

A planned reduction of troops to about 130,000 at the end of next year from a high of around 165,000 at the height of the "surge" should not derail that effort, but Iraq's government must take advantage of the improved security, Odierno said. There are 154,000 U.S. troops in Iraq now.

"We have a window, I don't know how long that window is, but there is a window because of the security to move forward," Odierno told a small group of journalists at his headquarters in Baghdad. "We need to get policies in place by the central government to do this."

One of the most important, he said, was a draft bill to ease curbs implemented against former supporters of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion.

Iraqi lawmakers are debating the U.S.-backed draft law that would pave the way for the creation of a National Commission for Accountability and Justice, an independent body that would screen former Baath members in place of the de-Baathfication commission, which many Sunnis have complained has been overly zealous in purging low-ranking party members who had in many cases joined the party under pressure from Saddam and been following orders.

"Reconciliation must continue," Odierno said.

The U.S.-led coalition has been gradually transferring control of security to the Iraqi government and Britain's handover of southern Basra was the latest in a series that began in July 2006. The coalition retains control over half of Iraq's 18 provinces, including Anbar and central areas where violence has flagged but not stopped.

"This is a step toward resuming security responsibilities in all of Iraq's provinces that is due in the middle of next year," Iraqi National Security adviser Mouwaffak al-Rubaie said in Basra. He represented Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki at the handover ceremony in the capital of the oil-rich region.

In Diyala, one of Iraq's most dangerous regions, al-Qaida militants tried to regain control of several villages around Khalis, 50 miles north of Baghdad, but the U.S. backed volunteers drove them away, said Abdul Karim al-Rubaie of the provincial command center.

Sunnis have been turning against al-Qaida in significant numbers and signing up for the volunteer security forces — partly in disgust at the militant group's brutal tactics, and partly to seek American protection against what they see as government-backed Shiite militias.

"It is a battle of life and death, it is a continuous fight until we cleanse all the villages on the outskirts of Khalis," said Sheik Zuhair al-Obeidi, who was involved in Sunday's fighting.

Next summer is more than half a year longer than President Bush's prediction in January that Iraq would assume control all of its provinces by November. Giving responsibility to the Iraqi army and police does not necessarily mean that violence will abate in Basra, where rival Shiite parties and militias have fought for control of the province.

"This remains a violent society whose tensions need to addressed, but they need to be addressed by Iraqi political leaders," British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who also attended the handover ceremony, told the British Broadcasting Corp.

Gen. David Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, said in a joint statement with U.S. Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Patricia A. Butenis, that Iraqi forces "have demonstrated their readiness to assume responsibility for the provincial security. Today this responsibility is theirs."

British troops will not immediately leave southern Iraq but will instead remain at their base just outside the city. This is know by the military as "operational overwatch," in which Iraqi security forces and civilian police take responsibility under a provincial governor, or other official, and coalition forces are held in reserve in bases that are spread out — intervening when necessary or when asked.

The next phase would involve a hand over at a national level — which could then set stage for a large-scale withdrawal of all foreign troops a few years later.

___

Associated Press reporters Lori Hinnant and Sinan Salaheddin contributed to this report from Baghdad.

[NormsRevenge]

T'was the last fews days before Christmas

and all thru the House

and the Senate too

Dhimmi Heads was exploding

with the latest news

[NormsRevenge]

British soldiers take position before the start of the handover ceremony outside the airport in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, 550 kilometers (340 miles) southeast of Baghdad, Sunday Dec. 16, 2007. British forces formally handed over responsibility Sunday for the last region in Iraq under their control, marking the start of what Britain hopes will be a transition to a mission aimed at aiding the economy and providing jobs in an oil-rich region beset by militia infighting. (AP Photo/ Nabil al-Jurani)

[NormsRevenge]

Iraqi soldiers drive tanks during a handover ceremony in Basra, south of Baghdad, December 16, 2007. (Atef Hassan/Reuters)

[NormsRevenge]

I'd think twice too, MuQQty..

The radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr delivers a sermon, in a Mosque, in Kufa, 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq, in this Friday Sept. 22, 2006, file photo. Britain's Saturday, Dec. 15, 2007, handover of Basra province will have a limited effect on security in Iraq's biggest oil region because rival Shiite warlords and local officials have been wielding the real power in the area. The main players in Basra and southern Iraq are the powerful Shiite entities, al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia; Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the largest Shiite political party and the Badr Brigade militia, which has largely been absorbed into the Iraqi security forces; and the Fadhila party, which also has its own fighters and a member as Basra's governor. (AP Photo/Alaa Al-Marjani)

[NormsRevenge]

Care for another shot, Senator?

Ol' Quagmire .. an old Kennedy family favorite spirit.

[Allegra]

Iraq is boring.

I think I'll go home for a couple of weeks where I can get some excitement.

Well done, troops.

[NormsRevenge]

Generals Petraeus and Odierno.. . Thet're all a bunch of liars, of course.
I am firm in my stand on that.

Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., talks with supporters after speaking at a campaign stop Sunday, Dec. 16, 2007 in Council Bluffs, Iowa. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

[NormsRevenge]

Oops, here's one more with Huma at her side, naturally..

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.,
talks with supporters after she speaks at a campaign stop
Sunday, Dec. 16, 2007, in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
At right, Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

[NormsRevenge]

Well done, indeed.

Thanks to all those who have sacrificed so much and to their families.

[preacher]

Will the “insurgents” stage an offensive attack a few weeks before our presidential election next year?

[NormsRevenge]

expect the media too.. at least. same difference, I reckun.

[NormsRevenge]

Here's to the new Sheriff in town and to a Give 'em Hell approach for those who would continue their attacks on the people of a sovereign Iraq.

.

Iraqi police march during a parade at a handover ceremony in Basra, south of Baghdad, December 16, 2007. Britain handed over security in Basra province to Iraqi forces on Sunday, effectively marking the end of nearly five years of British control of southern Iraq. (Atef Hassan/Reuters)

[hinckley buzzard]

Oops, here's one more with Huma at her side, naturally

Those pictures of Huma hovering ever in the backround are getting downright spooky. I wonder when the rest of the world will begin to notice?

[Jeff Chandler]

Every time NormsRevenge posts good news out of Iraq, a baby Democrat cries.

[Jeff Chandler]

"...Officials are warning that the public should take great care not to make direct eye contact with the zombies."

[Southack]

So has Hillary been repeating her “willing suspension of disbelief” line lately?!

Nice to see Iraqi regulars manning tanks again. Helicopters coming up next, I presume.

[freema]

murtha was hung
by the chimney with care
in hopes that St. Pelosi
soon would be there

the children were nestled
all snug in their beds
while visions of peace
danced in their heads

[Prince Caspian]

Man, the expression in those eyes tells me everything I need to know. And I guess that old saying about “birds of a feather...” is true, too.

[jveritas]

Amen to VICTORY.

[purpleraine]

Harry Reid must be on vacation.