Holy city of Najaf to be handed over to Iraqis

NAJAF, Iraq, Dec 20 (Reuters) Iraqi authorities imposed a vehicle ban in the holy city of Najaf, seat of Iraq's most powerful Shi'ite clerics, as US-led forces prepared to hand it over to Iraqi control today.

The province of Najaf is the third of Iraq's 18 provinces to be transferred to Iraqi security forces. Whether it can remain calm will be a key test for the Iraqi government and for US hopes of handing over the rest of the country and withdrawing.

To guard against a possible attack by insurgents, officials ordered vehicles off the city's streets and put police on every street corner ahead of the ceremony, which is to be attended by senior Iraqi officials.

Iraqi police and soldiers gathered in a football stadium, venue of the handover ceremony, as music blared from speakers.

US President George W Bush is under pressure to withdraw troops amid rising U.S. and Iraqi casualties and growing public dissatisfaction with the war which contributed to his Republican party's defeat at congressional elections last month.

While Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has pressed for a speedy handover, a recent U.N. report said the Iraqi police and army were deeply infiltrated by militias and other armed groups.

With a few major exceptions, Najaf, home to Iraq's most senior cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani, has been spared much of the violence rocking Baghdad and other areas where Shi'ites, Sunni Arabs and ethnic Kurds live side by side.

But it has not been immune to conflict between Shi'ite factions.

Its status as a historic centre of Shi'ite scholarship, and consequently political influence, means it will be especially important for the handover to succeed.

TUG-OF-WAR Najaf was the scene of a bloody three-week uprising by the Mehdi Army, a militia loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, against US forces in August 2004. Today the Mehdi Army is one of several Shi'ite factions jostling for influence in the city.

A report by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group warned yesterday of tensions between the Mehdi Army and the Badr Brigades, a militia loyal to the powerful Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

''Both Shi'ite paramilitary groups are engaged in a dangerous tug-of-war over the holy city of Najaf,'' the report said.

Naval Lieutenant Michael Marley, a spokesman for the US- led multinational force handing over control, said all but a handful of the US and other troops in the province had pulled back in September and Iraqis were already effectively in charge.

Hikma Habib, a 27-year-old policeman in Najaf, was sceptical of the handover, saying previous ceremonies handing over smaller areas of control had made little difference.

''One time I raised the Iraqi flag and we had a ceremony with the governor of Najaf present ... and now they are handing over security again,'' Habib said.

''I don't think this will be the last time, because the US forces, when they want to arrest somebody, they take back control of security, and after the arrest they hand it back again to the Iraqis. It's just a game.'' British forces handed over Muthanna province in July and Dhi Qar in September, both in the relatively calm Shi'ite south of the country. Britain has said it hopes to hand the oil-rich Basra province back to Iraqi control in the first half of 2007.

REUTERS PB PM1346