Interim Government Takes Control of Iraq

Army, Aug 2004

Sovereignty in Iraq passed from the Coalition Provisional Authority to the interim Iraqi government on June 28, two days ahead of schedule. "This is a historic and happy day for us in Iraq," said Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawar. "It is a day that all Iraqis have been looking forward to. ... We want a free and democratic Iraq, and we want a country that is a source of peace and stability for the whole world."

In a 10-minute ceremony inside coalition headquarters, Ambassador L. Paul Bremer III read a letter he had signed that dissolved the Coalition Provisional Authority. Bremer then boarded a helicopter and later left the country aboard a military C-130 Hercules transport plane.

The next day, legal custody of Saddam Hussein was transferred from the coalition to Iraq. The former dictator appeared before an Iraqi judge on July 1 to hear preliminary charges against him that included the gassing of Kurds and the invasion of Kuwait.

On July 4, Gen. George W. Casey replaced Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez as the commander of the MultiNational Force-Iraq. He will oversee the 140,000 American troops and 25,000 allied forces.

The majority of the 1st Armored Division left Iraq on July 15 after 15 months of service. The unit had originally been slated to depart in April, but guerrilla uprisings delayed its departure.

There have been other signs of progress in the country. On June 21, the Iraqis began conducting most of the training for the country's new armed forces. As many as 843 Iraqi army officers, including 11 women officers, graduated from a military course conducted in Jordan. Future Iraqi officer and initial enlisted entry training will now be conducted almost entirely by Iraqi army trainers. On June 26, an Iraqi citizen turned in 110 antipersonnel mines and two antitank mines to the 1st Infantry Division.

In continuing hostilities, on July 8, five U.S. solders were killed in Samarra when a barrage of mortar shells collapsed a building they were in with Iraqi national guardsmen. Twenty other people were injured in the attack.

On June 27, two U.S. soldiers were killed. One soldier was killed when the C-130 Hercules transport aircraft he was in was hit by small-arms fire. Another soldier was killed in a rocket attack two hours earlier at a coalition base in Baghdad.

On June 16, two soldiers were killed and 21 others were injured in a rocket attack at Logistics Support Area Anaconda in Balad, Iraq. On June 6, a soldier with the 13th Corps Support Command was killed and another injured after a mortar attack on their base camp near Baghdad. They were both initially evacuated to medical facilities, where one later died. A Task Force Baghdad soldier died that same day from noncombat-related causes.

On June 5, two more soldiers were killed in Baghdad by an improvised explosive device (IED). Two other soldiers were injured in the attack. On that same day one civilian contract driver was killed, and a U.S. soldier, assigned to the 13th Corps Support Command, was injured after an IED attack on a convoy near Haditha.

Coalition forces continue to bring the fight to the enemy and rescue hostages. On June 8, coalition forces rescued four civilian hostages south of Baghdadthree Italians and one Pole. The kidnappers had executed another Italian hostage soon after the April 12 kidnapping.

On June 3, three soldiers of Task Force 1st Armored Division were wounded in an attack during the search of a school near Kufa, a suspected site of several recent mortar attacks. While approaching the school, soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 37th Armor Regiment, were fired upon with rocketpropelled grenades and small arms. Soldiers returned fire, killing a significant number of attackers. A search of the school yielded two 82 mm mortar tubes, a 120 mm mortar tube, two RPG launchers with RPGs, a light antitank weapon, several AK-47 assault rifles, 10 hand grenades, forty 60 mm mortar rounds and twenty 120 mm mortar rounds.

On July 3, 1st Cavalry Division troops discovered an apparent bombmaking facility and several weapons caches. The makeshift factory seemed to specialize in outfitting vehicles with explosives. The soldiers also discovered 12 million dinars in Iraqi currency at the site. On June 1, soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division discovered two weapons caches in Tikrit. Soldiers discovered more than 60 artillery rounds under a bridge near Bayji. Later that day, they stopped a dump truck carrying 137 artillery rounds.

IRR Called Up. The Army began calling up 5,600 mainly low-density specialty soldiers in the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) on July 6, to fill out the ranks of Army units headed to Iraq and Afghanistan. There may also be more involuntary mobilizations in the future.

The soldiers will serve up to 24 months. IRR soldiers who have returned from operational missions in combat zones or hardship tours within the last 12 months will not be mobilized unless they volunteer. Soldiers will receive orders five to seven days after receiving mailgrams and will also receive a packet of information that will give them basic information, including how to report, what to bring and how their families will be cared for.