BAGHDAD, Sept 16: US General Raymond Odierno took charge of US-led forces in Iraq on Tuesday from David Petraeus, the general credited with pulling the violence-wracked country back from all-out civil war.

Petraeus handed the command of the 146,000-strong US force after heading a controversial military “surge” strategy by President George W. Bush that curbed the daily bloodletting in Iraq which killed tens of thousands of people.

The formal handover ceremony took place at a former military dictator Saddam Hussein’s palace near Baghdad airport located at Camp Victory, a US military base.

But on the eve of the transfer of power, Odierno was given a powerful reminder of the task ahead when a series of bomb blasts killed at least 34 people.

Iraq was spiralling into an all-out civil war when Petraeus took over as commander in February 2007, almost four years after Saddam was toppled by US-led invading forces.

But since late last year violence has fallen significantly to a four-year low, and much of the credit has gone to the counter-insurgency strategies of the 55-year-old Petraeus.

Petraeus becomes the new chief of Central Command with responsibility for US troops from the Horn of Africa to Central Asia, including the conflicts in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

On Monday, Gates credited Petraeus’s “brilliant strategy” and its implementation by US troops and field commanders for the success of the surge.

“I think he’s played a historic role. There is just no two ways about it,” he said. Petraeus oversaw the surge, but it was his former deputy Odierno who first proposed it in December 2006 to a resistant Pentagon, setting the stage for what would become a pivotal turn in the unpopular war.

Odierno, a hulking artillery man criticised for running roughshod over civilians during his first tour to Iraq in 2003-2004, implemented the “surge” strategy as the corps commander from December 2006 to March 2008, which Gates said made him the right person to replace Petraeus.

Odierno carried out the detailed counter-insurgency campaign that poured US troops into Baghdad, cleared Al Qaeda insurgents from havens in communities surrounding the capital, and targeted Shia militants.—AFP