Iraqi forces take control of towns and cities across the country on Tuesday to replace departing US forces, a milestone in the country's recovery six years after the US-led invasion.

Iraqis celebrated into the night but soldiers and police were out in force to prevent insurgent groups spoiling the party as US troops quit their posts in urban centres ahead of complete pullout from Iraq by the end of 2011.

"All Iraqis are happy today because it's the first day that they're going to protect themselves," said Baghdad civil defence spokesperson Tahsin al-Sheikhli.

"We know that Iraq's enemies will attempt to disrupt security but our forces are ready to take them on."

Landmark security agreement

The pullout is part of a landmark security agreement signed last year between Baghdad and Washington covering the fate of the some 133 000 US troops still in Iraq.

Security was tight in the the wake of several massive bombings that have killed more than 200 people this month.

All leave for security force personnel has been cancelled and motorcycles, a favoured form of transport for several recent bombers, have been banned from the streets.

"Our expectation is that maybe some criminals will try to continue their attacks," interior ministry operations director Major General Abdul Karim Khalaf said.

"That is why orders came from the highest level of the prime minister that our forces should be 100 percent on the ground until further notice."

End of the rule of the multinational force

On Monday, the former defence ministry building in the capital, taken over in the wake of the US-led invasion in 2003, was handed back to the Iraqi government.

"This marks the end of the rule of the multinational force," said General Abboud Qambar, the head of Baghdad Operation Command.

It was a landmark celebrated by huge crowds of revellers in Baghdad's largest park on Monday evening.

Popular Iraqi singers including Salah Hassan, Kassem Sultan and Abed Falek, who all live abroad, returned home for the celebration.

"Since 2003, I have never been to a party but today I am coming to hear the singers I love," Ahmed Ali (20) told AFP.

Revellers had to undergo three security checks to enter the park but no one seemed to complain amid a jubilant atmosphere, where an onstage banner declared that Baghdad's sovereignty and independence had been recovered.

Even policemen joined in the fun, dancing with the party-goers.

"Today is the day that we got back our country," said Salim Mohammed, from the sprawling Shiite working-class district of Sadr City.

Militias step up attacks

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki warned earlier this month that insurgent groups and militias were likely to step up attacks in the run-up to the 30 June deadline in a bid to undermine confidence in Iraq's own security forces.

There have been several large bombings since, the deadliest of which came near the northern oil hub of Kirkuk on 20 June, when a truck loaded with explosives was detonated, leaving 72 people dead and more than 200 wounded.

The US military announced on Monday that a US soldier had died of injuries sustained in combat in Baghdad. A bomb in Sadr City on Sunday wounded three US soldiers, initial reports had said.

And a source close to Iraq's counter-terrorism office revealed that a truck loaded with 64 mortar rounds believed intended for use in sabotaging the pullout had been intercepted in west Baghdad after successfully negotiating 11 roadblocks.

But Maliki and senior government officials have insisted that Iraq's 750 000 soldiers and police can defend the nation against attacks.

Only a small number of US forces in training and advisory roles will remain in urban areas, with the bulk of American troops in Iraq, 131 000 according to Pentagon figures, quartered elsewhere.

The 30 June withdrawal is the prelude to a complete American pullout by the end of 2011.

The Status of Forces Agreement, which set the pullback deadline, says US commanders must seek permission from Iraqi authorities to conduct operations, but American troops retain a unilateral right to "legitimate self-defence".

AFP

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