Iraq Sovereignty Handover Completed

Iraq Sovereignty Handover Completed



By Andrew Marshall

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq (news - web sites)'s occupying powers formally transferred sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government on Monday -- two days earlier than expected -- to try to thwart guerrilla attacks, officials said.


Reuters correspondent Alistair Lyon, who was at the ceremony, said it was attended by Paul Bremer, the outgoing U.S. governor of Iraq, and top Iraqi government officials.


In Istanbul, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari confirmed plans to bring the handover forward.


"I believe that we will challenge these terrorists, criminals, Saddamists and anti-democratic forces by bringing even the date of the handover forward," Zebari told reporters after meeting British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites).


Although an interim Iraqi government led by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi will have "full sovereignty," according to a U.N. Security (news - web sites) Council resolution on the handover 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.


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


HOSTAGE CRISIS


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 (news - web sites) and a Pakistani contractor, in a new spate of kidnappings ahead of the handover.


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 President Bush (news - web sites)'s visit to Turkey for the NATO (news - web sites) summit on Monday and Tuesday.


Turkey and Pakistan are not part of the U.S.-led occupation force in Iraq but many nationals work as drivers, cooks, cleaners and support staff for U.S. troops.


Turkey refused to bow to the kidnappers' demands, saying it had been "fighting terrorist activity for more than 20 years."


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 bloody 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.


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.

Several explosions also rang out in central Baghdad as guerrillas aimed mortars at the "Green Zone" compound housing the U.S.-led administration's headquarters. One mortar killed two boys playing near the Tigris river, doctors said.

A separate rocket attack on a U.S. base in Baghdad killed an American soldier. At least 630 U.S. soldiers have been killed in action in Iraq since the start of the war last year.