Petraeus takes reins in Iraq

Army Gen. David H. Petraeus took control of U.S. forces in Iraq on Saturday with a grim assessment of the situation he is inheriting from the outgoing commander, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., who predicted that Iraqi troops would be in charge of the country’s security by fall.

In a brief ceremony beneath a massive chandelier in the marble and mosaic rotunda of one of Saddam Hussein’s former palaces, the two leaders’ contrasting styles stood out.

Petraeus warned that Iraq was doomed if U.S. and Iraqi troops did not bring sectarian violence under control, while Casey suggested that American forces had done plenty of heavy lifting and that it was up to Iraqis to take over.

Casey, the newly confirmed Army chief of staff, whose 2 1/2 -year tenure in Iraq coincided with a sharp rise in sectarian violence and insurgent attacks on coalition forces, hands the reins to Petraeus at a crucial point in the four-year conflict. A new U.S.-Iraqi plan to step up security in Baghdad and Al Anbar province has just begun, and leaders from both countries are banking on it having enough impact on violence to quell skepticism over their handling of the war.

Petraeus, who called the Iraqi situation “dire” during his confirmation hearings last month, was also blunt Saturday and offered only guarded optimism. Saying the mission is “doable,” he also called it “exceedingly challenging” and warned that failure was not an option if Iraq was to survive intact.

“The prospects for success are good. Failing that, Iraq will be doomed to continuing violence and civil strife,” said Petraeus, whose development of the Army’s just-released manual on fighting counterinsurgencies will heighten scrutiny of his performance here.

Leaving with pride

Casey would not acknowledge any second thoughts about his tactics and, in comments before the ceremony, said he was leaving Iraq “with a great feeling of pride, because I really feel we’ve laid the foundation for Iraq’s success.”

He insisted Iraq’s military and police, while “not quite ready” to take charge of security, would be by late summer or fall. In the meantime, Casey said, it is the responsibility of all Iraqis to get over the sectarian divisions carved out during Hussein’s 35-year rule.

“We liberated them from 35 years of tyranny. We can’t liberate them from the fears and prejudices that grew up in 35 years. They’ll have to do that themselves,” Casey said.

His comments angered some Iraqis, who say U.S. and Iraqi leaders introduced sectarian divisions by playing Shiite and Sunni Arabs against each other in the government, and by not reining in Shiite militias that sprang up after the overthrow of Hussein’s Sunni-led regime.

Udai Hammadi, a 27-year-old Sunni, predicted that Shiite militias would reduce attacks during the initial phase of the security plan, then resurface once U.S. forces had handed full control to Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s Shiite-led government. “I will pack up and leave Iraq for good,” Hammadi said when asked if he believed Iraqi troops would be ready to take charge soon.

A 25-year-old Shiite, Faris Attia, agreed. “I doubt it. As long as the sectarian and political divisions are reflected on the street, it is highly unlikely,” Attia said.

The day’s violence reflected those divisions.

In Baghdad’s mainly Shiite Karada neighborhood, a suicide bomber parked his car near a bakery and crowded market shortly after noon, killing at least six civilians. In Kamaliya, another mainly Shiite district in east Baghdad, at least five civilians were killed when a car bomb exploded on a street lined with auto parts and repair shops.

A 15-year-old girl died when she was caught in crossfire between rival groups in a street battle typical of the kind plaguing all of Baghdad’s neighborhoods.

Across Baghdad, at least 30 men were found shot to death, apparent victims of sectarian violence. Twenty-four additional bodies were discovered in the area around Kut, about 100 miles southeast of the capital. In Musayyib, about 35 miles south of Baghdad, mortar rounds slammed into civilian homes overnight, killing two women and a man, and another man was killed by a roadside bomb.

More U.S. casualties

Northeast of Baghdad, in volatile Diyala province, an effort by U.S. and Iraqi forces to flush out Sunni insurgents led to three more deaths among American forces. The soldiers died Friday when a blast tore through a house they were searching for weapons, the military said.

That brought to 36 the number of American troops killed in the first 10 days of February, representing one of the highest daily death rates since the war’s start in March 2003.

Hundreds of U.S. and Iraqi forces mounted an offensive last month in Diyala, which hugs the border with Iran. The military says Diyala is a hotbed of Sunni Muslim extremists with ties to Al Qaeda. The leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab Zarqawi, was killed in a U.S. airstrike in June in Diyala, a region so notorious for insurgent attacks that Iraqi forces have refused to venture into much of it without U.S. backing.

At least 3,121 U.S. troops have died since the invasion of Iraq, according to the website icasualties.org, which tracks casualties in the war.

susman@latimes.com

Times staff writer Zeena Kareem and special correspondents in Baghdad contributed to this report.