Iraqi government prepares to regain sovereignty

Two days remain until Iraqi sovereignty is restored and power in the country is handed over to an Iraqi interim government. As the transition nears, concern exists about the ability of the interim government to provide security in the country that has been beset by violence.\nThe Coalition Provisional Authority, which has governed Iraq since U.S.-led coalition forces overthrew Saddam Hussein's regime in April 2003, will be dissolved following the transfer of power. U.S. interests in the country will be represented by U.S. Ambassador to Iraq John Negroponte, who was sworn in Wednesday by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.\nCoordinated attacks Thursday on five cities in Iraq that left over 90 Iraqis dead underscore the precariousness of security situation in the country. The interim Iraqi government, headed by Iyad Allawi, must prepare for elections to select a national assembly that will pen a new constitution for the country. The interim government will also assume control over Iraqi police and security forces. Allawi has pledged to take on insurgents in the country who have regularly attacked coalition forces, Iraqi civilians, security forces and government officials.\nCoalition forces will remain in Iraq after the handover date at the request of the interim government to assist in combating the insurgency being carried out by Iraqi militants and foreign extremists in the country.\nU.S. officials suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to be behind several of the bombings in Iraq and the beheading of U.S. citizen Nicholas Berg and a South Korean man, Kim Sun-Il.\nBrigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations for the U.S. military in Iraq, said in a Reuters story Friday that a strike on a suspected safe house in Faluja, Iraq, narrowly missed Zarqawi, who is thought to be operating in the area. \nTareq Al-Rubei, a junior from Kuwait, said Zarqawi poses a significant threat to stability in Iraq. \n"Zarqawi is not Iraqi, he is a Jordanian. He is a fanatic and he does not represent anyone in Iraq. He represents the worst forms of hatred in the world, such as people like (Osama) bin Laden and (Timothy) McVeigh," Al-Rubei said.\nSenior Erick Watt-Udogu said he is concerned at threats to members of the Iraqi interim government.\n"It is going to be difficult all around for the interim government. The current prime minister is a marked man. Sadly, he may not last very long," Watt-Udogu said.\nA group linked to Zarqawi has issued a death threat to Allawi in a statement in which they claimed he would share the same faith as late President of the Iraqi Governing Council Ezzedine Salim, who was assassinated by a car bomb.\nTwo weeks ago two members of the interim government that has yet to assume power were assassinated. Gunmen killed Kamal Al-Jarah, a senior education ministry official, and Bassam Salih Kubba, Iraqi deputy foreign minister.\nSenior Glenn Coats said despite the threat posed by the escalating violence, the Iraqi people and coalition forces had to combat the insurgents until security and democracy in the country were established. \n"To give up because some people that don't want free elections are bombing people would be what they want us to do," Coats said, "We should never give up."\nAhead of the transfer fears of a two-pronged insurgency waged by both Sunni and Shiite groups have subsided after Shiite clerk Moqtada al-Sadr, asked fighters of his militia, the Mahdi Army, to put down their arms and disband.\nIraqi Fulbright scholar Rawand Darwesh said Sadr chose to end his campaign against coalition forces after the majority of Shiites in the country refused to support his cause and after assessing the threat posed to Shiites by groups loyal to Zarqawi.\n"Moqtada Sadr felt that the larger threat was not the Americans but Abu Musab Zarqawi," Darwesh said. "The Americans respect the Shiites, however Abu Musab Zarqawi has openly called the Shiites infidels."\nDarwesh added if international support in Iraq wanes and countries within the coalition pull out their troops, the Iraqi people would be the worst affected.\n"All the strata of Iraqis want the coalition forces to remain and provide security until the country is stabilized," he said.\n-- Contact nation & world editor Rami Chami at rchami@indiana.edu.