Iraqi government takes control of Karbala

The Iraqi government yesterday took control of Karbala province in a ceremony where Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said his government will take over security of Basra in December.

The occupation forces have now handed over security responsibility of eight provinces to the Baghdad government so far.

"Iraqi security forces in Karbala have been successfully operating independently, maintaining their own security for the past three months," US Ambassador in Baghdad Ryan Crocker and US commander David Petraeus said in a statement to the ceremony.

The Iraqi government had hoped to assume responsibility for security in all Iraqi provinces by the end of the year, but the Pentagon said in its quarterly Iraq report in September that this was now likely to happen in July 2008.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said that the southern city of Basra would be transferred from British control in mid-December.

The Iraqi government has protested to Washington over illegal presence of US private security companies, seen by some as having assumed a great unofficial security role, calling for termination of their contracts.