BAGHDAD, Iraq – Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said yesterday that Iraqi forces are capable of taking over security throughout the country within 18 months.
But he did not mention a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S.-led coalition forces.
In Washington, the White House said before a meeting between President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair that it was premature to talk about troop withdrawals.
The killing of at least 18 people around Iraq was a reminder of the lack of security in a country where drive-by shootings and roadside bombings are so commonplace they fail to elicit any official reaction.
The U.S. military announced that a soldier was killed in action, and Iraqi police said they found the bodies of nine people who had been tortured. The slayings pointed to the sectarian death squads in Baghdad and Iraq's major cities.
“Our forces are capable of taking over the security in all Iraqi provinces within a year and a half,” al-Maliki said in a written statement, in which he acknowledged that security forces needed more recruits, training and equipment.
His comments came as Sunni Arab and Shiite political leaders expressed hope that compromise candidates would be found by Saturday to head the defense and interior ministries.
A firm hand guiding the two ministries could lay the groundwork for shifting security responsibilities from U.S.-led forces to the Iraqi army and police. U.S. officials have conceded that might take longer than Iraqi officials wish.
The violence in Iraq and the need for coalition forces will be a primary topic when Bush and Blair meet today. Both leaders have dropped sharply in the polls and are under pressure to make troop cutbacks.
“I do not believe that you're going to hear the president or the prime minister say we're going to be out in one year, two years, four years,” White House spokesman Tony Snow said. “I just don't think you're going to get any specific prediction of troop withdrawals.”
Iraq's armed forces and police number about 254,000 and should reach about 273,000 by year's end. That, al-Maliki said, is when “responsibility for much of Iraq's territorial security should have been transferred to Iraqi control” – except for Anbar province and Baghdad, two of the most violent areas.
Al-Maliki and Blair said Monday that Iraqi security forces would start assuming full responsibility for some provinces and cities next month. They declined to set a date for a coalition withdrawal.
However, handing over security responsibilities to the Iraqis does not necessarily mean that significant numbers of U.S.-led forces will start returning home. Instead, plans call for them to move from cities to large coalition bases – where they will be on call if needed.
The Iraqi army needs to recruit at least 5,000 troops in Anbar, the western province that U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad acknowledged is not fully under coalition or Iraqi government control.
“I believe that parts of Anbar are under the control of terrorists and insurgents. But as far as the country as a whole is concerned, it is the coalition forces, along with Iraqi forces, who are in control,” Khalilzad told CNN.
The U.S. Army has said it wants to make up the shortfall in Anbar with locally recruited troops, but such a move probably will not be possible unless the Defense Ministry is controlled by a Sunni Arab.
