The US military in Iraq was to fall under Iraqi authority yesterday for the first time since the US-led invasion ousted Saddam Hussein in 2003, a milestone in the war-weary country’s path to restoring sovereignty.
The US force in Iraq, now more than 140,000 strong, has operated since 2003 under a UN Security Council resolution which expired at midnight on New Year’s Eve.
Starting Jan. 1, troops will operate under the authority of the Iraqi government, according to a pact signed earlier this year by Washington and Baghdad.
The pact gives US troops three years to leave Iraq, revokes their power to detain Iraqis without an Iraqi warrant, and subjects contractors and, in some cases, US troops to Iraqi law.
The new, tough terms of the US presence here were secured by an increasingly confident Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, emboldened by a maturing democracy, military victories against Shi’ite militias and progress against al-Qaeda militants.
US and Iraqi officials hold a ceremony yesterday morning to formally hand over control of the Green Zone, the heavily fortified Baghdad compound from which the US governed Iraq directly for more than a year after the invasion.
“The role of the coalition forces [in the Green Zone] will be secondary, centered on training Baghdad brigade troops to use equipment to detect explosives and advising Iraqi forces,” said Qassim Moussawi, spokesman of Iraqi forces in Baghdad.
Iraqi forces take over control of the heart of US power in Iraq as US forces across the country prepare to operate in new concert with local troops. While US soldiers remain under US command, US military operations are to be authorized starting Thursday by a joint US-Iraqi committee.
In Baghdad, Iraq plans also to end the lucrative contracts the US has awarded to private security contractors to guard the Green Zone, which Moussawi said would be terminated next September. From then on, Iraqis alone would secure the symbolic seat of Iraq’s political power.
On Wednesday, US officials finished vacating Saddam Hussein’s vast palace that was the seat of US power in Iraq.
Iraqi forces take over a dramatically different Iraq from the one ravaged by sectarian violence in 2006 and 2007.
Attacks have dropped sharply, thanks partly to a troop surge ordered by US President George W. Bush in 2007 and also to newfound cooperation from Sunni Arab tribal leaders.
But many Iraqis still resent what they see as a military occupation. They have bitter memories of abuses such as Abu Ghraib, the prison where images of US soldiers tormenting and sexually humiliating prisoners in 2004 made world headlines.
They are also hungry for basic services, jobs, and lasting peace. Majid Mola, an engineer, dismissed as meaningless the handover billed by Maliki’s government as a major victory.
“Where are the government services? Where is the electricity? People want practical things,” he said.
In what could become one of the most enduring images of the US military adventure, Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi won applause across the Middle East when he threw his shoes at Bush and called him a “dog” at a recent news conference with Maliki.
His trial for assaulting a head of state is still pending.
Under the bilateral pact which took effect at midnight, US combat forces are supposed to withdraw from Iraqi towns and cities by the middle of this year and all troops must leave by the end of 2011.
But troops may stay on longer in a support role for Iraqi forces, which have grown exponentially since 2003. While they are seen as far more skilled as they were, even senior Iraqi officials say they still need US help to root out militants.
Some 15,000 prisoners held at vast US military detention camps must now be charged with crimes under Iraqi law or, according to the security pact, gradually let go.
Meanwhile, two men accused of killing British soldiers have been turned over to Iraqi authorities in defiance of Europe’s top human rights court, Britain’s defense secretary said on Wednesday.
Faisal al-Saadoon and Khalaf Mufdhi are now in Iraqi custody and face trial for war crimes, British Defence Secretary John Hutton said in a statement.
The pair, former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party, are alleged to have killed Staff Sergeant Simon Cullingworth and Sapper Luke Allsopp after the pair were captured in an ambush during the opening days of the Iraq War.
Photographs of the dying soldiers, surrounded by an Iraqi mob, were broadcast on the Arabic television channel, al-Jazeera.
British forces in southern Iraq arrested Mufdhi and al-Saadoon in April and November 2003 respectively, holding them at the city’s airport as senior Baathists. British investigators later linked them to the killings, and the case was referred to Iraqi authorities for prosecution in late 2005.
Lawyers for al-Saadoon and Mufdhi have fought against any move to have the two tried in their home country, arguing that they might be tortured and face the death penalty.
But a British court ruled that the transfer was lawful. Hutton said he had no choice but to defy the European Court of Human Rights because Britain would lose the legal authority to hold the Iraqis in the new year, when its UN mandate expires.
“The European Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg has asked the UK to retain custody in Iraq of Mr. al-Saadoon and Mr. Mufdhi when we have no legal power to do so,” Hutton said.
“Compliance with Strasbourg requests would normally be a matter of course but these are exceptional circumstances,” he said.
Phil Shiner, an attorney who has fought to keep the men out of Iraqi hands, said the move is vindictive.
“The relevant public servants dealing with this case appear to enjoy the prospect of my clients being hung,” he said.
Britain’s military did not say when the men were transferred to Iraqi custody or give any indication as to their current whereabouts.
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