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Iraqi forces have assumed formal control of the capital, Baghdad, and other cities, six years after US-led coalition forces invaded Iraq. But as Iraq marked the occasion by celebrating Tuesday as Sovereignty Day, a car bomb killed up to 40 people and wounded 100 others in the northern city of Kirkuk, serving a grim reminder to the security challenges that Iraqis face following US troop pullout. US troops withdrew from the country's major cities and towns as the midnight deadline passed on Tuesday, leaving security in the hands of Iraqi forces. "The withdrawal of American troops is completed now from all cities, after everything they sacrificed for the sake of security," Sadiq al-Rikabi, a senior adviser to Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, said. He told the Associated Press news agency that Iraq is "now celebrating the restoration of sovereignty". Al-Maliki described the US withdrawal as a "turning point" for the country and declared Tuesday a public holiday. 'Sense of anxiety' But Al Jazeera's Hoda-Abdel Hamid, reporting from Iraq, said: "[Despite] the impression of a withdrawal and a return to sovereignty... there is a sense of anxiety in the air. "Security measures are tighter and some streets sealed off. "People here are extremely nervous ... they're trying to figure out if more roadside bombs are planted." But Mahmoud Almusafir, a former Iraqi diplomat, told Al Jazeera: "For me and all the Iraqis, this is the day the Americans confessed that they can't go more in Iraq, and they can't control the cities, they can't control Iraq. "This is ... [US] face-saving, telling the people of the world that we are not killing Iraqis anymore and letting the government have a proxy war on their behalf." Asked whether he feared Iraqis will start killing other Iraqis after the withdrawal, he replied: "This is American propaganda. They try to sell it to the world and unfortunately the world bought it. "There are no Iraqis killing Iraqis. Iraqis - Sunnis, Shias ... have lived together for hundreds of years. "The problem is American propaganda started at the beginning to control the city and this divided everyone ... unfortunately the politicians implemented this policy - the politicians who came with the Americans in 2003."
"All of us are happy - Shias, Sunnis and Kurds on this day ... the Americans harmed and insulted us too much," Waleed al-Bahadili, an Iraqi attending the celebrations, told the AFP news agency. Many Iraqis ignored an appeal by Tariq al-Hashemi, the Iraqi vice-president, to stay away from crowded places during the US pullback, after more than 250 people were killed in bombings over the past 10 days. Scattered bases
Motorcycles have been banned indefinitely in Baghdad after they were used last week in three separate attacks, killing more than 100 people. Despite the formal pullback, some US troops will remain in cities to train and advise Iraqi forces. US forces are also ready to return if asked. The US military is to continue combat operations in rural areas and near the border with the permission of the Iraqi government. The US has not said how many troops will be in the cities in advisory roles, but the vast majority of the more than 130,000 US troops forces remaining in the country will be in large bases scattered outside cities. |
2003: 175,000 - original invasion forceThe views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website.
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