4 Iraqi Areas May Be Handed Over

A senior U.S. military official Saturday outlined plans to hand over security to Iraqi police in Baghdad province and three others before the end of the year. But even as he spoke, Iraqi politicians failed to meet a deadline to appoint the ministers who eventually would be responsible for those forces.

The official described the military’s strategy for transfer of authority to the provincial governments in the relatively stable provinces of Najaf and Karbala in the next few months. The restive provinces of Babil and Baghdad “will take a little longer,” he said in a background briefing with reporters. The official said he believed it could happen by the end of the year but emphasized that the timeline for all four areas would be governed by security conditions.

Under the plan, local governors will initially take control of the police, intended as a “bridging” phase before the Iraqi government assumes full responsibility for security.

Since the new Cabinet was sworn in, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has repeatedly talked of Iraqis taking over security responsibilities from the Americans. It’s a message that also benefits the Bush administration, which is preparing for midterm elections and has lost significant domestic support over the conflict.

But Iraqi politicians have been unable to agree on who should be named as defense, interior and national security ministers.

“I sometimes tell my colleagues that I look at this issue just like what is going on in the stock market,” said Safiya Suhail, who represents a secular slate in the Council of Representatives, the Iraqi parliament. “This name goes up, and that name comes down, every day.”

The country’s sectarian division is reflected in the protracted negotiations over the country’s top security jobs. Sunnis have complained that the interim Shiite-led government allowed security forces to be infiltrated by Shiite militias.

Although the Sunni-led insurgency still mostly targets Shiites, the majority of victims in Baghdad are now Sunni, many of them abducted by men in uniform and shot execution-style.

“The biggest concern I have is with the bodies that we find, and we’re trying to bring that down,” the U.S. official said. Among the police force’s greatest challenges are militias and a lack of public trust, he said. “You have got to get a police force that’s respected, that can provide civil law.”

On Saturday, at least 13 people were killed in separate shootings.

In Baqubah, just north of the capital, gunmen killed three Shiite brothers, all blacksmiths, while cohorts killed two Shiite brothers who worked as mechanics in a shop next door.

Mukhalad Tahseen, a 30-year-old grocer, said he saw four men arrive in a car.

“They split into two groups: Two killed the blacksmiths, and the other two killed the mechanics,” Tahseen said, describing the victims as “harmless, good men.”

Police said officers chased the gunmen’s car, but they got away.

South of Baqubah, a drive-by shooting at a police checkpoint killed one officer and wounded three.

Gunmen in two cars killed two soldiers -- including the son of Mizhar Abdullah Ruwayyid, one of Saddam Hussein’s codefendants -- at another checkpoint on the highway between Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul.

In the northern city of Kirkuk, two police officers and an Iraqi army colonel were fatally shot, authorities said. It was the latest in a series of attacks against local security forces. Four roadside bombs also went off in and around the city but there were no reports of casualties.

Gunmen also killed a security advisor to the Interior Ministry and a passenger in his car on the highway between Mosul and the capital.

An AH-1 Cobra helicopter carrying two U.S. Marines crashed during a maintenance test flight Saturday in Al Anbar province in what appeared to be an accident, according to the U.S. military.

“We are using all the resources available to find our missing comrades,” Marine spokesman Lt. Col. Bryan Salas said in a statement.

A Marine assigned to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 28th Infantry Division was killed Friday in Al Anbar province, the U.S. military said Saturday. Despite continuous sweeps of cities and villages, U.S. troops have been unable to secure the vast western province.

Also in Al Anbar, police said the body of a blindfolded and handcuffed civilian was discovered Friday in a southern neighborhood of Fallouja.

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Times staff writers Raheem Salman, Suhail Ahmad and Saif Rasheed in Baghdad contributed to this report.