Baghdad, Iraq – A senior Iraqi official cautioned Thursday against expecting “magical solutions” from the upcoming reports to Congress on military and political progress in Iraq and acknowledged the Iraqis are still not ready to defend the country on their own.
The assessments by Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari touched on some of the core U.S. frustrations expected in next month’s report: the inability of Iraq’s leaders to put aside their political feuds and make strides toward creating a credible security force to allow a possible American withdrawal.
In the south, gunmen set fire to offices of a Shiite political party in at least three towns as tensions remained high.
The attacks raise doubts about the impact of an order by anti-American Shiite cleric Muq tada al-Sadr to suspend operations of his powerful Mahdi Army militia. His declaration Wednesday brought hope of easing the fighting among the majority Shiite community.
The U.S. military, meanwhile, reported two more American soldiers have been killed in action – one Thursday in Baghdad and the other the day before south of the capital.
That brings the total U.S. troop deaths in Iraq to at least 77 this month, just one fewer than the July total.
Iraq’s turmoil – including clashes this week between Shiite militias in the holy Shiite city of Karbala – has drawn new attention to the security crisis only days before key reports to the U.S. Congress measuring the country’s progress since the arrival of 30,000 additional American troops.
The reports, including those by U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and the top U.S. commander, Gen. David Petraeus, are expected to point to some limited success in curbing violence but little progress toward political power-sharing agreements among Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds.
At a news conference, Zebari insisted that Iraq has been making some headway in resolving political differences, despite defections by the main Sunni Arab bloc and a hard-line Shiite faction.
“The whole world is waiting anxiously to see what this report will indicate,” Zebari said. “I personally believe that this report would not provide any magical solutions or provide any instant answers to the difficulties and challenges we are going through.”
Zebari, a Kurd, cited an agreement reached last weekend by the country’s five leading political leaders, who pledged to work for parliamentary approval of landmark legislation demanded by Washington.
“I am hopeful that come Sept. 11 or 12 you will see more political progress,” Zebari said without elaborating.
In the meantime, Iraqis need help from U.S. and other international forces because the capabilities of Iraqi security forces “are not up to what is desired.”
Al-Sadr ordered a six-month suspension of activities by his militia to reorganize the force and presumably rein in Iranian-backed splinter groups that are beyond his control.
Many Shiites are becoming angry at the unruly Mahdi militia, some of whose members have purportedly turned to extortion and other crimes under the guise of protecting the majority Shiite community.
Despite the order, gunmen set fire to at least three Supreme Council offices Thursday – one near Nasiriyah and two near Hillah – according to police.
As a sign of continued tension, Karbala deputy Gov. Jawad al-Hasnawi said al-Sadr threatened to rescind the suspension order unless the Iraqi government stops detaining his followers in Karbala and elsewhere within the next 48 hours.
Al-Hasnawi said the warning was a response to raids by U.S.forces and Iraqi forces in the Karbala area on al-Sadr offices, in which six people were killed and 30 detained.
“These campaigns made Muq tada give his warning to the government,” al-Hasnawi said.
