Talabani Predicts Transfer of Security Duties by Year’s End

President Jalal Talabani predicted Wednesday that Iraqi forces would take over security duties in all provinces by year’s end, even as thousands of U.S. troops began a campaign to bring order to the capital. Across the country, insurgents killed two members of the U.S. forces and nearly 30 Iraqis.

“God willing, the Iraqi forces will be handed security in all Iraqi provinces by the end of the year,” Talabani, a Kurd, said in a televised interview.

But with violence continuing in Baghdad, U.S. military commanders have begun the process of moving 3,700 members of the Alaska-based 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team from Mosul to the capital in an effort to buttress Iraqi forces. The deployment boosts U.S. troop levels in Baghdad to more than 13,000.

The American troops killed Wednesday were in combat in western Iraq, officials said.

A Marine under the command of the Army’s 1st Armored Division and a soldier assigned to the 9th Naval Construction Regiment died “due to enemy action” in Al Anbar province, the U.S. military said, giving no further details.

Meanwhile, bombs placed at a soccer field and in a police station parking lot killed 12 Iraqis and injured 13 on Wednesday in the southwestern Baghdad district of Amal.

Mortar shells landed in a field in south Baghdad, killing three children ages 12 to 14 and injuring three people in a nearby house. The field is used by children for soccer and is in a Shiite Muslim-dominated area in the mostly Sunni district of Dora.

A roadside bomb exploded near a group of day laborers, killing three and injuring eight.

A car bomb in Mosul killed five Iraqi soldiers and injured four, and another bomb near Kirkuk left two dead and four wounded. In Diyala province, gunmen shot dead a leading traffic police official and one of his guards.

Despite an upsurge in sectarian and insurgent violence, Talabani cited “progress” on security issues but offered no specifics.

“We are still in need of certain equipment,” he told reporters. “We need time and cooperation from the public to be able to eliminate terrorism.”

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Times special correspondents in Kirkuk and Mosul contributed to this report.