Iraqi forces could take control by June 2007

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Thursday he believed Iraqi forces would be ready by June 2007 to take full control of security in Iraq, an issue on which he pressed President Bush during their meeting in Amman, Jordan.\nIn making the argument that his military and police could handle security in the country, al-Maliki has routinely said the force could do the job within six months.\n"I can say that Iraqi forces will be ready, fully ready to receive this command and to command its own forces, and I can tell you that by next June our forces will be ready," al-Maliki said in an interview with ABC News.\nBush and al-Maliki agreed the United States would speed efforts to turn security over to the Iraqi forces, although they mentioned no timetable during a post-summit news conference. \nAl-Maliki also said he rejects all Iraq's militias, including the Madhi Army of the powerful, anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who is a key ally of the Shiite prime minister. Despite such promises in the past, al-Maliki has frustrated the Bush administration by doing little to curb militias, which have been heavily involved in Iraq's spiraling sectarian violence in cities such as Baghdad.\nAl-Malaki said he reassured Bush of "the government's resolve to impose the government's authority, bring stability, hold to account outlaws and limit the possession of arms to the hands of the government."\nAl-Maliki said he was determined to ensure that Iraq's security forces have the weapons and the training needed to fight more effectively on the battlefield.\n"We mean by arming, the weapons fit to fight the terrorists ... the light and effective weapons, vehicles, armor vehicles and helicopters that will be active in the next phase in the fight against the terrorists," he said.\nOne of the main goals of the U.S. coalition is to train enough Iraqi soldiers and police to take over its security responsibilities, especially in western Iraq, where al-Qaida in Iraq is powerful, and Baghdad, where fighting between Sunni militants and Shiite militias is escalating.\nBush said the U.S. would accelerate a planned handover of security responsibility to Iraqi forces but assured al-Maliki that Washington is not looking for a "graceful exit" from the war.\nBush's comments came on the heels of the release of recommendations from an Iraq Study Group report on U.S. options in Iraq urging a major withdrawal of U.S. forces. Such a withdrawal would gradually shift the U.S. military role from combat to support, a shift in policy for the Bush administration that Bush seemed to reject Thursday, days ahead of the report's release.\nEarlier Thursday, al-Maliki called on lawmakers and Cabinet ministers loyal to al-Sadr to end their boycott of the government in response to his summit with Bush.\n"I hope they reconsider their decision because it doesn't constitute a positive development in the political process," al-Maliki said at a news conference on his return to Baghdad from a two-day visit to neighboring Jordan, where he met with Bush and King Abdullah II.\nThe 30 lawmakers and five Cabinet ministers loyal to al-Sadr had threatened to quit the government and parliament if al-Maliki went ahead with the summit, which aimed at halting Iraq's escalating sectarian violence and paving the way for a reduction of U.S. troops.\nBut they limited their protest to suspending participation in ministries and the legislature, and left open the possibility of returning to their jobs.\nA senior Sadrist legislator, Baha al-Aaraji, said the cleric's supporters would return to work when there are more well-trained Iraqi security forces and the government ends the country's chronic shortages of electricity and fuel.\nThe Sadrists played a critical role in al-Maliki's election earlier this year, and he appears reluctant to comply with U.S. demands to disband the Mahdi Army. The militia is blamed for much of the sectarian violence tearing Iraq apart.\n"Political partnership means commitment," al-Maliki said, addressing his Sadrist allies, whom he advised to use constitutional channels to air their grievances.\nAl-Maliki pledged again Thursday to act against illegal armed groups, but he did not name the Mahdi Army or say what steps he might take.\nMeanwhile, the U.S. military said Iraqi forces found 28 bodies Wednesday in what might be a mass grave south of the city of Baqouba. For about a week, heavy fighting between Iraqi police and Sunni insurgents has killed scores of people in and around Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.\nIn the southern city of Basra, police said gunmen killed Nasir Gatami, the deputy of the local chapter of a group called Sunni Endowment, and three of his bodyguards in an attack on their two-car convoy.\nThe Endowment, which confirmed the attack, was created to care for Sunni mosques across Iraq. In the past four months, 23 of its employees have been kidnapped in Baghdad, with suspicion focused on Shiite militias.\nThe military also said a U.S. soldier was killed during combat in Baghdad Wednesday, raising to at least 2,884 the number of U.S. service members who have died since the war began over 4 1/2 years ago.