US DEFENCE secretary Robert Gates has said during a visit to Iraq yesterday that the withdrawal of US combat troops from urban bases was paying off as Iraqi forces assumed the lead for the fragile security situation.
Also yesterday, a bomb hidden on a motorcycle killed eight people and wounded 13 others in the Iraqi capital’s eastern New Baghdad district, police said.
In addition, bank robbers shot dead eight people at a Baghdad bank before blasting open its vault with dynamite and making off with eight billion Iraqi dinars ($6.84 million) in cash yesterday.
Despite violence being at lows not seen since late 2003, shootings and bombings by militants and criminal gangs remain common.
Mr Gates is expected to touch on possible arms sales during the his visit and try to help bridge a deep divide between ethnic Kurds and Arabs that many fear may undermine security gains.
“Nobody’s the boss or the occupier, or however you want to put it, but there’s a real sense of empowerment by the Iraqis,” Mr Gates said yesterday of US-Iraqi co-operation following the June 30th deadline for pulling US combat troops out of city bases.
The withdrawal, a milestone in the plan to pull out all US troops of Iraq by the end of 2011, raised fears among some Iraqis that untested local forces would not be able to keep Iraq from sliding back into greater bloodshed.
“Less than a month into it, I’m really heartened,” Mr Gates told reporters after addressing US troops at the dusty, sun-baked Tallil air base on a sweltering summer’s day.
He said Iraq’s security situation was “amazingly different” to that of his first visit to Iraq as US defence chief in December 2006, at the height of the sectarian bloodshed that has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis since the 2003 invasion.
Mr Gates met Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki and was due to hold talks with defence minister Abdel Qader Jassim.
He will visit the largely autonomous northern Kurdish region, which appears to be drifting farther from Arab leaders in Baghdad in an impasse over oil and disputed land, and is expected to meet Kurdish president Masoud Barzani.
Kurds are vowing to pursue their claims of areas like oil-producing Kirkuk as they assert greater control over hydrocarbon reserves.
The United States wants to prevent any clashes that might play into the hands of Sunni insurgents who would style themselves a bulwark against Kurdish encroachment.
“We’re very much positioned now as kind of an honest broker,” said a senior US defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity. He said US forces in northern Iraq were playing an important “confidence-building” role in Kurd-Arab disputes.
“The Arab-Kurd dimension is probably the most pressing one at the moment in terms of the issues that really need to get dealt with to consolidate our security gains,” he added.
Kurdistan held parliamentary and presidential polls this weekend that, despite an unprecedented opposition challenge, were not expected to oust the ruling powers.
Mr Gates hopes to build on talks between Mr Maliki and US president Barack Obama in Washington, seeking what both countries have called “more normal” ties as US forces stand down.
Part of this is the billions of dollars Iraq is expected to spend on arms and Baghdad’s interest in Lockheed Martin’s F-16 multi-role fighter jets. Iraqi officials have expressed interest in buying an initial squadron of 18 F-16s this year, with a goal to acquire as many as 96 through 2020.
“We think it’s a good idea that they go with a multi-role fighter – that it be ours,” the US official said. – (Reuters)