Iraqi govt seeks more weapons from US: 37 killed in violence
BAGHDAD, Dec 13: Iraqi leaders discussed a new security plan for Baghdad on Wednesday as bombs and shootings killed 37 people across the country in the run-up to national unity talks.
Multiple car bombs in Shia districts and a truck bomb in the north targeting Iraqi soldiers guarding oil pipelines claimed 20 lives.
Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki told a visiting delegation of US congressmen led by Arizona Senator John McCain that his government had a new security plan to protect the capital and the rest of the country.The government requires “more arms for the Iraqi army, more powers and training in order to be capable of handling security missions all over the country,” he told the delegation, his office said.
Mr Maliki's National Security Advisor Muwaffaq Al Rubaie told journalists the plan involved a swifter transition from United States troops to Iraqi forces.
US forces would move to the outskirts of the cities to combat Al Qaeda insurgents, while the Iraqis would handle the raging sectarian conflict.
“The coalition forces should not get involved in sectarian violence -- this is a job for the Iraqi security forces to do,” he told CNN.
US spokesman Maj-Gen William Caldwell said American forces would remain as advisors with Iraqi forces to train them and, more importantly, ensure they remain neutral.
“Their real purpose is to provide leadership, mentoring and coaching, but they in fact will be able to observe what we call professionalism to make sure (the Iraqis) are not acting in a sectarian manner out there,” he said.
As part of the transition, more and more US combat forces would be turned into transition teams accompanying Iraqi forces, he said, citing recent successes in northern Iraq.
Ultimately, however, the spokesman insisted that more effort was needed by Iraqi leaders to stem the violence.
“Until that political process gets more engaged and the political leadership and the political parties become more concerned about this than anyone else, we are not going to see a turn in the levels of violence,” he said.
Mr Maliki has promised to hold a national reconciliation conference on Saturday, but which factions will attend and whether they have ties with the armed groups involved in the violence is not yet known.
A car bomb exploded in a market near the Al Kamaliyah mosque in Baghdad, killing at least 10 people and wounding another 26, a security official said.
Two more car bombs later near the nearby Al Samuri mosque killed five labourers and wounded 10.
Two truck bombs smashed into a base of the country’s oil infrastructure protection force, killing 10 soldiers and wounding six, an officer said, adding that three civilians were wounded.
A policeman was killed in a bomb attack.
Mortars hit a house in Hawija, killing a woman and two of her children.—AFP
