US springs surprise Iraq power swap

BAGHDAD - Iraq's occupying powers formally transferred sovereignty to an interim Iraqi Government last night - two days earlier than expected - to thwart guerrilla attacks.

In a surprise handover ceremony that was finished before it was announced and before ordinary Iraqis were aware of it, outgoing US governor Paul Bremer handed a letter to Iraqi officials sealing the transfer of powers.

Mr Bremer flew out of Baghdad just hours later.

"This is a historic day, a happy day, a day that all Iraqis have been looking forward to," Iraqi President Ghazi Yawar told the ceremony.

"This is the time when we take the country back into the international community."

Prime Minister Iyad Allawi accepted documents transferring sovereignty of the chaotic country with the words, "We feel we are capable of controlling the security situation".

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said in Istanbul the handover was brought forward to avert attacks by insurgents mounting a campaign of bloody attacks.

"I believe that we will challenge these terrorists, criminals, Saddamists and anti-democratic forces by bringing even the date of the handover forward."

During the ceremony Mr Bremer, describing himself as "ex-administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority", said the US-led coalition had come to liberate Iraq - as anyone who saw the mass graves left by Saddam Hussein could attest.

"I leave Iraq confident in the future and confident in the ability of the Government to meet the challenges of the future," he said.

Although the interim Iraqi Government will have "full sovereignty", according to a UN Security Council resolution on the handover this month, there are important constraints on its powers.

It is barred from making long-term policy decisions and will not have control over more than 160,000 foreign troops who will remain in Iraq. This includes New Zealand's 61 engineers, who are expected to stay until September, when their deployment ends.

The Iraqi Government has the right to ask foreign troops to leave, but has made clear it has no intention of doing so. Guerrillas have mounted a series of bloody attacks this month aimed at disrupting the handover, and several foreign hostages have been seized in the past week.

On Sunday, the Arabic-language satellite channel al-Jazeera broadcast footage of a blindfolded US Marine, whose captors said they would kill him unless Iraqi prisoners were released.

A brief video showed a blindfolded man dressed in camouflage sitting in a chair with a hand holding a sword above his head. A Marine Corps identity card named him as Wassef Ali Hassoun and al-Jazeera said he was of Pakistani origin, but the US military said he was of Lebanese descent.

Militants have already seized three Turks and a Pakistani contractor in a new spate of kidnappings.

Fighters loyal to al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said at the weekend they were holding the Turks and would behead them within 72 hours unless Turks stopped working with US forces.

The threats have cast a shadow over US President George W. Bush's visit to Turkey for a Nato summit.


Turkey refused to bow to the kidnappers' demands.

Last night the US military denied reports that Zarqawi had been captured.

Zarqawi, who Washington says is its number-one enemy in Iraq, is accused of masterminding a string of suicide bombings and of the beheadings of an American and a South Korean hostage.

His group has also claimed responsibility for the wave of suicide bombings and armed assaults in five cities last week that killed more than 100 Iraqis and three US soldiers.

At least 630 US soldiers have been killed in action in Iraq since the war started last year.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq