Wed Jan 3, 12:00 PM ET
U.S. commanders in Iraq expect to have handed over full control of the country's security and armed forces to the Iraqi authorities by the end of this year, a U.S. general said on Wednesday.
Major General William Caldwell, a spokesman, also told a news conference that Iraq's military and police planned to buy hundreds of armoured vehicles, as well as helicopters, under a $150 million agreement signed last month with the United States.
Describing 2007 as the "Year of Transition," Caldwell said that by summer all 11 Iraqi army divisions to have been formed by that time would be directly under the command of the Iraqi government and by autumn all of Iraq's 18 provincial governors would be in charge of security in their regions.
"By the end of this year, the dynamics will be entirely different," he said.
The timetable he sketched out is longer than one Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki forecast after he took office eight months ago, when he said Iraqi control of the divisions and provinces could be complete by the spring or summer.
However, it is in line with remarks in recent months by General George Casey, the U.S. commander in Iraq, about when he believes Iraqi forces will be able to cope largely without U.S. help.
Caldwell said the United States would continue to provide logistical and intelligence support, as well as work to ensure the "loyalty" of some units of the Iraqi forces -- many in Saddam Hussein's once dominant Sunni Arab minority accuse some of being loyal not to the government but to sectarian Shi'ite militias.
"Iraq's security forces must not only continue to improve their capabilities but must also work to gain the confidence of all Iraqi people," Caldwell said.
He urged the Shi'ite-led government to make "hard compromises" for national reconciliation and to reach out to Sunnis after Saddam's televised hanging angered many Sunnis.
Caldwell said that Iraq planned to buy 300 armored personnel carriers, 600 heavily armored Humvee patrol vehicles and a number of UH-2 Huey helicopters as part of a $150 million foreign military sales agreement with Washington.
He declined comment on speculation that President George W. Bush may announce a temporary increase in the number of U.S. troops in Iraq as part of a new strategy to try to arrest a slide toward all-out sectarian civil war.