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US Exits Backdoor

By Alistair Lyon and Lin Noueihed

28 June, 2004
Reuters

BAGHDAD: The United States has handed over sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government, formally ending a 14-month occupation two days earlier than expected to try to forestall guerrilla attacks.

In a surprise ceremony on Monday that was over before it was announced and before ordinary Iraqis were aware of it, Iraq's outgoing U.S. governor, Paul Bremer, gave a letter to Iraqi officials sealing the formal transfer of powers. Within hours, Bremer flew out of the country, a coalition source said.

"This is a historic day, a happy day, a day that all Iraqis have been looking forward to," Iraqi President Ghazi Yawar said at the ceremony, which transferred sovereignty at 10:26 a.m.

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

U.S. and British officials say the handover is a key step on the path to democracy in Iraq, but one of the government's first actions as a sovereign power is expected to be the imposition of emergency laws, including curfews, to crack down on guerrillas.

A senior U.S. official said in Istanbul, site of a NATO summit, that the handover gave Prime Minister Iyad Allawi more leverage and "strengthens his hand to deal with the threats inside his country".

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said in Istanbul the handover had been brought forward to try to thwart insurgents who might have been planning attacks to coincide with the ceremony, long announced for Wednesday.

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

CONSTRAINTS ON POWER

Although Allawi's government will have "full sovereignty", according to a U.N. Security Council resolution earlier 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. The government has the right to ask them to leave -- but has made clear it has no intention of doing so.

Allawi said after the ceremony that he was committed to holding elections in January as scheduled. Last week he was quoted as saying insecurity might force the polls to be postponed until February or March.

"The Iraqi government is determined to go ahead with elections on January 2 of next year," Allawi told reporters.

There was little reaction from world foreign exchange markets to the early handover.

"Any sign Iraq could have a more stable future would be beneficial for the dollar, but bringing the handover forward by a day or two doesn't change a great deal," said Shahab Jalinoos, senior currency strategist at ABN AMRO in London.

HUNT FOR ZARQAWI

Guerrillas have mounted bloody attacks this month aimed at disrupting the handover, and several foreign hostages have also been seized over the past week.

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

"A Marine assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force has been absent from his unit since June 21," a U.S. statement said. "However, Naval Criminal Investigative Services cannot confirm that Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun has been taken hostage."

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 on Saturday they were holding the Turks and would behead them within 72 hours unless Turks stopped working with U.S. forces.

The threats have cast a shadow over U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to Turkey for the NATO summit.

Turkey and Pakistan are not part of the U.S.-led occupation force in Iraq but many of their nationals work as drivers, cooks, cleaners and support staff for U.S. troops. Both countries have rejected the kidnappers' demands.

Zarqawi's group beheaded a South Korean hostage last week after Seoul rejected a demand to withdraw its forces from Iraq, and last month decapitated a U.S. captive.

Zarqawi has also claimed responsibility for a series of attacks, most recently a wave of suicide bombings and armed assaults in five cities on Thursday that killed more than 100 Iraqis and three U.S. soldiers. Washington has offered $10 million for information leading to his death or capture.

Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations for the U.S. army in Iraq, denied reports on Monday that Zarqawi had been captured in a raid south of Baghdad.

On Monday morning a roadside bomb killed a British soldier in the southern city of Basra and wounded two others.

On Sunday a C-130 transport aircraft was hit by small arms fire after takeoff from Baghdad airport. One person was wounded and later died, the U.S. military said.

At least 630 U.S. soldiers have been killed in action in Iraq since the start of the war last year.