Iraq-U.S. ‘partnership’ is in ‘transition’ – report

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The U.S. and Iraqi infantry soldiers walked in a staggered formation Thursday through northwestern Baghdad’s Ghazaliya district, with its chocolate-colored villas and orange trees, according to a report published by Los Angeles Times (LAT) on Friday. With the new year, Iraq was now in charge of its own security, including places like this – a mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhood that had been the site of raging gun battles during the country’s sectarian war, which lasted for most of 2006 and 2007. On the first day of the new era, the Iraqi soldiers were still following U.S. soldiers’ instructions on what route to take and whom to talk to. The Americans motioned when to ask residents for information about recent Sunni militant attacks or to tell residents that Iraqi forces, not the Americans, were now in charge here. The early-morning patrol underscored the delicate nature of what everyone calls a transition, where the American officers refer to their job as partnering with Iraqi combat units, now that a U.S.-Iraq security pact has gone into effect. Under the agreement, which replaced the U.N. mandate that made U.S. forces responsible for Iraq’s security, the Americans must now ask the Iraqis permission for any operation. The pact calls for U.S. forces to leave cities by the end of June and to withdraw from the country by the end of 2011. Both Iraqi and American soldiers on patrol said that the leadership of raids now varies from mission to mission. Sometimes the Americans lead, other times the Iraqis. “With this relationship you have one battalion commander, an Iraqi battalion commander in the lead. He has an American commander to advise him,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. John Richardson of the 5th Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment. MH (S)/AmR 1