Iraq has secured the right to prosecute US soldiers and civilians for crimes committed outside their bases and when off duty, in the latest draft of a security pact that will set the terms of their deployment beyond this year.
The draft stipulates that the US will have the primary right to exercise jurisdiction over its soldiers and civilians if they commit a crime inside their facilities or when on missions.
But the arrangement gives Iraqi courts the right to prosecute US soldiers and civilians if they commit “grave and premeditated felonies outside their facilities and when not on missions.”
PHOTO: AFP
The decision is seen as a hard-won concession for Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki who has taken a tough stand on protecting his country’s sovereignty in the pact.
The agreement pact will provide the legal basis for a US troop presence in Iraq after the present UN mandate expires on Dec. 31. A failure to agree on the terms would force Baghdad and Washington to find another legal framework.
If the agreement is signed by the two sides and approved by the Iraqi parliament, it will become effective from Jan. 1 and last for three years, during which a phased withdrawal of US forces is outlined.
US combat forces will withdraw from Iraqi towns and villages by next June and pull out of Iraq completely by Dec. 2011, the document says.
“By this time the Iraqi forces will take over all the security responsibility in the country. After June 2009, US forces will stay in the bases outside the villages and cities,” the document says.
The two sides have also agreed that all military operations in Iraq will be carried out with the approval of Baghdad under the supervision of a Joint Military Operation Coordination Committee to be formed under the pact.
The agreement also restricts US military powers by permitting troops to detain Iraqis only through an Iraqi order. It also stipulates that any US personnel detained by Iraqis must be handed over immediately to US authorities.
Iraq will also be in control of its air space once the agreement comes into effect.
Iraq will also have the primary right to exercise jurisdiction over US private security contractors.
Meanwhile, new British Defence Secretary John Hutton made his first visit to Iraq yesterday and met Maliki in Baghdad.
Hutton took over the defense portfolio in British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Cabinet reshuffle on Oct. 3. Britain has about 4,000 troops in Iraq, mainly at an air base outside the southern city of Basra.
In other news, Iraqi police say they have found 11 decomposed bodies believed to have been killed at least a year ago.
A police officer says the bodies were found in the village of Banat al-Hussein, northeast of Samarra.
The officer said eight were found together in a mass grave on Saturday. Another three were found roughly 700m away.
The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorize to disclose the information.
He said one man from a Sunni group that revolted against al-Qaeda in Iraq identified six of his relatives in the bigger grave, including his brother.
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