Change in sovereignty means little while US troops linger
Jassim Hamid's mobile phone would not stop ringing. It was June 23, a week before the US-led occupation authority was scheduled to turn over some powers of state to an Iraqi interim government.
Mr Hamid is an agent for a taxi company that takes travellers from Baghdad to Amman in Jordan. There are many Iraqis who do not want to be in the country on the day of the transition, fearing increased violence and the imposition of martial law as the deadline draws closer.
On June 24, fighting broke out between mujahedeen fighters and US troops in four cities to the north and west of Baghdad. The mujahedeen control Fallujah and Baqubah, and residents are preparing for US offensives in both cities.
Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Alawi has vowed to crush the militants, but there seems to be little he can do without the aid of the American army. In Ramadi, Baqubah and Fallujah, local police have been forced out of their stations and the buildings destroyed.
But in all towns, police said they had security under control even after stations were demolished and in the case of the police chief in Baqubah, as his home was being burned to the ground.
'We are providing the security in Fallujah,' said Sabar Fadhil, the commander of the Fallujah police, on June 23, moments after other officers had told foreign journalists it was not safe for them to be in the city, even inside the fortified police station.
In other parts of the country, militants said they held little stock on the transition, but were planning to hold their fire - as long as the US held theirs.
On Friday, members of the militia were instructed to avoid attacking US troops. But fighters in Al-Thawra (also known as Sadr City), a slum on the north side of the capital from which Moqtada al-Sadr draws most of his support, were armed and prepared to attack US troops if they crossed the line.
'They can patrol the streets if they wish,' said one fighter who showed journalists a bomb made from an old mortar shell, the design most often used by militants who place explosives at roadsides and detonate them when US troops pass. 'But if they search houses in the neighbourhood or they fire, we will use our American rat trap.'
For Iraqis involved in reconstruction efforts, the handover also means little.
At the Mishrul Al-Mahawadi water treatment plant, which provides about 20 per cent of Baghdad's water, plant manager Riad Hussein Radi said US firms contracted to help expand the plant would not begin work until after the new year.
Many Iraqis say sovereignty means little as long as US troops remain in the country. Some troops also feel the same way.
'What's the point as long as we're still here?' asked a soldier from Philadelphia. 'If they really have sovereignty, then we should be going home.'
