Baghdad violence casts shadow over province transfer

By Ross Colvin

AMARA, Iraq (Reuters) - Car bombs that killed 170 people in Baghdad on Wednesday overshadowed what was meant to be a rare good news day for Iraq's government as it took control of security in a fourth province in the more stable Shi'ite south.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and U.S.-led forces in the country are anxious to show that four years after the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, Iraqis are finally taking control of security for themselves.

It has been a painfully slow process that has been dramatically hindered by the wave of sectarian violence that erupted a year ago and has since killed tens of thousands, raising fears of all-out civil war.

The violence has hampered efforts to build a new Iraqi army and police force that will pave the way for U.S.-led forces to being pulling out. While U.S. and Iraqi officials talk up the abilities of the Iraqi army, it has little combat experience and is still dependent on U.S. firepower and logistical support.

Maysan province on Wednesday became only the fourth to be handed over to the Iraqis, out of a total of 18. But it lies in the south, a region that has been largely untouched by the bloodshed between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunnis, although there are power struggles between rival groups.

"There are different security issues and different security levels," Iraq's national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, explained in the provincial capital Amara when asked why British forces were handing over security in Maysan when thousands more American soldiers were heading to Baghdad.

He said a timetable for the withdrawal for foreign forces, as demanded by radical anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, would only be considered once certain conditions were met, mainly the training and equipping of Iraq's police and army.

Rubaie was speaking to journalists on a dusty parade ground after a handover ceremony at a base in Amara that the British called Sparrowhawk before they pulled out most of their forces last year and repositioned along Maysan's border with Iran.

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The base had been heavily mortared by Shi'ite militias. With British troops no longer a sitting target in the base, violence in Amara has been greatly reduced.

Iraqi soldiers and police proudly paraded their vehicles in front of local tribal leaders, politicians and British and American officers in a ceremony aimed at showing Iraqis were taking another step towards full control of security.

Rubaie said the three provinces in Iraq's stable Kurdish north would be transferred next, with the rest to follow "by the end of the year", including the vast western Anbar province that is the heartland of the Sunni insurgency, and Baghdad, where a U.S.-backed offensive is under way to curb violence.

That timetable has been pushed back before because of the unrelenting violence and the slow pace of standing up the Iraqi security forces. Maliki said late last year he hoped the handover would be completed by mid-year.

U.S. Major-General Kurt Cichowski, who also attended the ceremony, said of the new timetable: "I would not say it is unrealistic but it will be a challenge."

One indicator of that challenge was Rubaie's helicopter trip to Amara from Baghdad, 365 km (230 miles) to the north.

His British air force Merlin, a troop-carrying helicopter, was forced to bank sharply and swoop low over orchards and fields repeatedly during the 90-minute flight to thwart any attack from gunmen lurking in the groves.