The U.S. military on Thursday gave Iraqi authorities control of security in most of the "Triangle of Death," an area south of Baghdad that has seen a dramatic turnaround. But in a sign of continuing instability, a suicide bomber in Baghdad tried to assassinate Iraq's labor minister, slamming an explosives-laden sport-utility vehicle into an official convoy and killing nine people, authorities said. The minister, Mahmoud al-Sheikh Radhi, escaped injury. The blast occurred in what is regarded as one of the safest areas of Baghdad, just 200 yards from the entrance to the heavily guarded Green Zone, which includes the U.S. Embassy and the office of the prime minister.
Violence overall has decreased sharply in Iraq in the past year, and U.S. authorities have been eager to transfer security responsibilities to the Iraqi security forces they have been trying to rebuild since the toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
On Thursday, the province of Babil became the 12th of Iraq's 18 provinces in which the responsibility for security was passed to domestic forces. Most of what was called the "Triangle of Death" was located within its borders. Thousands of people have been killed in sectarian clashes in the mostly Sunni Arab area in the past five years. "Today's security handover is the fruit of the victory over al-Qaeda," Babil's governor, Salim al-Musilmawi, said, referring to the mostly domestic group al-Qaeda in Iraq, according to the Associated Press. He credited members of the Sons of Iraq, a U.S.-paid group of mostly Sunni fighters who broke with the insurgents and allied with American forces.
Lt. Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, the No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq, called the transfer a "milestone," noting that the number of attacks in the province had fallen 80 percent from an average of 20 per week last year. But he noted that "while the enemies of Iraq are down, they are not necessarily defeated," the AP reported.
The approximately 3,800 U.S. troops in the province will remain to train Iraqi security forces and to assist if violence spikes and the Iraqi authorities request assistance, U.S. military officials said.
Under the Iraq strategy announced by President Bush in January 2007, security for all of Iraq's provinces was to be transferred by November of that year. U.S. military officials have said the process was delayed because if the inability of the Iraqi police to handle the responsibility.
The United States has not yet ceded control of security in Baghdad, which has been plagued by explosions. Officials have tried to prevent car bombings by setting up checkpoints and turning the city into a honeycomb of blast walls that limit the movement of vehicles. But while bombings at mosques and other crowded places have declined, assailants have turned to assassinations, officials say.
The attack against Radhi occurred during the morning rush hour, when a gray 1979 Toyota Land Cruiser slammed into his official motorcade in Tahrir Square in central Baghdad and exploded, authorities said. The minister is a member of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, a major Shiite coalition partner of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
The blast killed nine people and wounded 26, according to Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, the top spokesman for Iraqi military operations in Baghdad. Among the dead were three of the minister's bodyguards, including his nephew, according to a statement from the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. The explosion blew a hole in the street, sheared chunks of brick off buildings and damaged many cars in the area. The windows of stores surrounding the square were shattered, and glass carpeted the sidewalks.