General: Turnover of Diyala may extend into 2008

Above: U.S. soldiers prepare to embark on house-to-house raid operations in Diyala. Left: Baqouba is the capital city of Diyala.

TIKRIT, Iraq -- A U.S. general warned Saturday that increased Sunni attacks in a province extremists call the center of their Islamic state in Iraq may delay plans to hand it over to Iraqi troops by the end of the year.

Plans call for all provinces to be transferred to Iraqi security control by Dec. 31, with the hope that U.S. troops could begin to leave. But increased attacks by Sunni insurgents could delay the transfer of Diyala, just northeast of Baghdad, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon told The Associated Press.

Direct fire attacks on U.S. soldiers in the province are up 70 percent since last summer, said Col. David W. Sutherland, commander of the 1st Cavalry Division's 3rd Brigade. The security crackdown in Baghdad has also encouraged mostly Sunni extremists to flee the capital for surrounding provinces, especially Diyala, Mixon said.

That influx has caused a spike in violence in the province, known as "Little Iraq" because of its near-equal mix of Sunni and Shiite Arabs as well as Kurds -- the country's three major groups.

Read the rest at the International Herald Tribune

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