Al-Maliki: Iraq nearing readiness for U.S. pullout

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Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said yesterday, a day on which more than 60 Iraqis were killed in sectarian violence, that his country could handle its own security and withstand a withdrawal of all U.S. troops in the next 12 months.

Appearing on CNN's "Late Edition," Mr. al-Maliki was asked through a translator whether Iraqi forces could sustain security if the U.S. withdrew all troops in one year.

"I think yes," Mr. al-Maliki said. "The forces will be able because the friendly multinational force is working hard to finish the building of Iraq."

"The more our security agencies have developed, the less the period will be for the [U.S.] forces to remain," Mr. al-Maliki said, although he would not speculate on when exactly his government might ask U.S. troops to leave.

But "I think this period will not be long because we have begun to have security responsibility in the provinces," he said. "By the end of this year, we will have the rest of the provinces to take control of."

However, yesterday, just one day after Mr. al-Maliki won a promise from tribal leaders to rein in Iraq's violent factions, dozens more Iraqis were killed in bomb attacks and shootings across the country, with reports of the death toll from wire services in Baghdad ranging from 50 to "about 60."

Suicide car bomb attacks in Kirkuk, in the mostly peaceful Kurdish region, killed 10 and injured more than 50. A religious shrine belonging to Kurdish President Jalal Talabani was hit in one of the attacks, suspected of having been conducted by Sunni extremists.

Provincial police in Diyala, north of Baghdad, said a three-car squadron of gunmen indiscriminately raked the main open-air market in Khalis, a mostly Shi'ite town, killing at least 12 persons and wounding 25 others.

Mr. al-Maliki has been appealing to both Sunnis and Shi'ites to accept his national reconciliation plan to end sectarian and terrorist violence. Mr. al-Maliki told CNN that violence was decreasing in his country, despite the reported attacks.

"The violence is not increasing. We're not in a civil war," Mr. al-Maliki said. "Iraq will never be in a civil war. The violence is in decrease, and our security ability is increasing."

The daily attacks have left nearly 10,000 dead since Mr. al-Maliki took office in April, according to the Associated Press.

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, told "Fox News Sunday" that the current strategy in Iraq might be "unable to sustain 135,000 troops there for another year." Mr. Biden said the Iraqi government should designate largely autonomous regions in Iraq to ease sectarian violence.

"All I'm saying is that they should have control over their local laws of marriage and property and education the same way the state of South Carolina is different than the state of California today," Mr. Biden said.

A top government official in Iraq yesterday told Reuters news agency that Mr. al-Maliki planned to reshuffle his Cabinet just 100 days after it was formed because he wanted to root out disloyal or poorly performing ministers and rally factions behind his national reconciliation plan.

In downtown Baghdad, a minibus exploded outside the Palestine Hotel, killing nine persons and wounding 16, while a car bomb outside the offices of a government-run newspaper left three dead and at least 29 wounded, police and witnesses said. There were also multiple-fatality attacks in Basra in the south, Mosul in the north and Dujail, north of Baghdad.

The U.S. military in Iraq said two U.S. service members were killed, one on Saturday night in a roadside bomb attack southeast of Baghdad and another in a gun attack in the capital yesterday.

• This article is based in part on wire-service reports