One big step to Iraqi independence

US troops have pulled out of Iraqi cities. Photo / AP

More than six years after United States forces captured Baghdad, American combat troops withdrew from all Iraqi cities and towns yesterday, handing over control to the 650,000-strong Iraqi Army and police and marking a crucial step in Iraq's return to independence.

Iraqi state television had been showing a clock with an Iraqi flag marking the time that remained until the US pull-out with the words: "June 30: National Sovereignty Day."

Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, although closely allied to the US, called the departure a "great victory" and declared it a national holiday.

Fireworks coloured the Baghdad skyline, and thousands attended a party in a park where singers performed patriotic songs. Loudspeakers at police stations and military checkpoints played recordings of similar tunes as Iraqi military vehicles decorated with flowers and national flags patrolled the capital.

Most US troops had already left the towns and cities where they were once the predominant military force. For months, it has been uncommon to see US patrols on the streets in Baghdad, though they have been more visible in Mosul where there is more fighting.

The Pentagon was intent on avoiding any dramatic television pictures showing Americans in retreat which might stir memories of the fall of Saigon in 1975. It will keep 130,000 soldiers in bases outside urban areas until September and steadily withdraw all combat troops from Iraq by August 2010 and remaining forces by the end of 2011.

The US is already seeing its power drain away as Iraqis take on board that American troops really are going. Maliki is seeking to burnish his nationalist credentials by claiming it was he who forced the US to accept a timetable for the end of the occupation during lengthy and rancorous negotiations for a US-Iraq "status of forces agreement" signed by George W. Bush last year. President Barack Obama is sticking rigorously to this timetable.

The US troops will have a low-key presence . Convoys from Camp Victory, the US base at Baghdad airport, will travel to the Green Zone in central Baghdad only at night. In Mosul, US vehicles must have signs saying they are not part of a combat force. In rural areas, US combat operations can continue only with the permission of the Iraqi Government.

Six years ago, Iraqis generally welcomed the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. But the US occupation was largely unpopular, according to opinion polls.

Sectarian and ethnic divisions within Iraq were deepened by the occupation because the three big communities responded differently to it: Kurds supported it, Sunni Arabs fought against it and the Shiite Arab majority co-operated with it in order to establish their rule. Having taken power, the Shiites now want the Americans out, while many Sunni, defeated in the sectarian civil war between 2005 and 2007, are fearful of losing US protection.

The days before the pullout saw a sharp increase in violence with 250 Iraqis killed, mostly by vehicle-borne bombs targeting crowded Shiite markets and worshippers leaving mosques. These atrocities have provoked doubts about whether the Iraqi security forces are capable of dealing with al Qaeda, the presumed perpetrators.

Al Qaeda's aim in attacking the Shiites is to provoke reprisals by the Shiite-dominated security forces against the Sunni community, which might become frightened enough to turn back to al Qaeda gunmen for defence. So far Iraqi government forces have not taken the bait.

Security is much improved in Baghdad and central Iraq compared to two years ago, when 3000 people were being killed every month. Baghdad may now be safer than Mogadishu, but it is still more dangerous than Kabul and the 2.2 million refugees who fled to Jordan and Syria are not returning in large numbers.

The refugees are still dubious about security and living conditions. The electricity supply is not permanent and there is a continuing lack of clean water. Some two million people have jobs with the Government and are well paid, but there is little other secure employment.

In the next few days, the Oil Ministry will begin awarding contracts to international oil companies, to stop the fall in output, and then to raise production. Successful reconstruction will be the key to Iraq's long-term stability.

- INDEPENDENT, additional reporting AP