BAGHDAD, Iraq – Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Wednesday he believed Iraqi forces were capable of taking over security around the country within 18 months, but he did not mention a timetable for U.S.-led coalition forces to leave.
In Washington, the White House said before a meeting between President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair that it was premature to talk about troop withdrawals.
The killing of at least 18 people around Iraq was a reminder of the lack of security in a country where drive-by shootings and roadside bombings are so commonplace they fail to elicit any official reaction.
The U.S. military announced that a soldier was killed in action, and Iraqi police said they found the bodies of nine people who had been tortured. The slayings pointed to the sectarian death squads in Baghdad and Iraq’s major cities.
“Our forces are capable of taking over the security in all Iraqi provinces within a year-and-a-half,” al-Maliki said in a statement, in which he acknowledged that security forces needed more recruits, training and equipment.
His comments came as Sunni Arab and Shiite political leaders expressed hope that compromise candidates would be found to head the defense and interior ministries by Saturday.
A firm hand guiding the two ministries could lay the groundwork for shifting security responsibilities from U.S.-led forces to the Iraqi army and police. U.S. officials have conceded that could take longer than Iraqi officials wish.
The violence in Iraq and the need for coalition forces will be a primary topic when Bush and Blair meet today. Both leaders have dropped sharply in the polls and are under pressure to make troop cutbacks.
“I do not believe that you’re going to hear the president or the prime minister say we’re going to be out in one year, two years, four years,” White House spokesman Tony Snow said. “I just don’t think you’re going to get any specific prediction of troops withdrawals.”
Iraq’s armed forces and police number about 254,000 and should reach about 273,000 by year’s end. That, according to al-Maliki, is when “responsibility for much of Iraq’s territorial security should have been transferred to Iraqi control” – except for Anbar province and Baghdad, two of the most violent areas.
Al-Maliki and Blair said Monday that Iraqi security forces would start assuming full responsibility for some provinces and cities next month. They declined to set a date for a coalition withdrawal.
The U.S. Army soldier died Tuesday when his patrol was attacked by small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades during an operation to clear roadside bombs south of Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad, the military said.
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