Hopeful Iraqis Taking Lead in Kirkuk

TO GO WITH STORY SLUGGED BC-ME-IRAQ-NORTHERN HOPE BY LAUREN FRAYER--Iraqi army troops patrol downtown Kirkuk, 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2006. Iraqi police have been taking a lead in policing their communities in the oil-rich northern Iraqi city, while U.S. soldiers continue to shadow and train them. (AP Photo/Lauren Frayer) (Lauren Frayer - AP)

KIRKUK, Iraq -- A voice crackles through a two-way radio as U.S. soldiers patrol the dusty streets of this northern Iraqi city: A roadside bomb has exploded downtown, and there are casualties.

It's a routine call across Iraq, but one thing is different in Kirkuk: The voice on the radio is Iraqi, not American.

Iraqi forces are gradually taking the lead in policing Kirkuk, where sectarian violence is scant compared to places like Baghdad 156 miles south. The transition gives the American troops training them hope that they are closer to going home.

U.S. soldiers transferred authority to one Iraqi unit in Kirkuk in early autumn, and two others are scheduled for mid-January. By the time the Army's 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry heads home to Hawaii next summer, about half the Iraqi forces in Kirkuk _ army and police _ will be under Iraqi command, said Lt. Col. Michael Browder, a 45-year-old Clarksville, Tenn., native in charge of training the units.

"They're in the lead, but they still have on their training wheels," Browder said with a wry smile. He left this week to lead a mission organized and executed by Iraqi forces, going after a suspected terrorist group south of Kirkuk.

The city's ethnic diversity _ a mix of Kurds, Sunni Arabs, Christians and Turkomen _ helps insulate it from the Sunni-Shiite conflict battering other Iraqi cities, the capital especially.

But Kirkuk is not without violence. In the past three months, the city has seen about 20 car bombs that have killed or wounded 300 people _ mostly Iraqi police and civilians, said Col. Khattab Omar Aref, commander of the Kirkuk police's best-trained group, the Emergency Services Unit.

Aref, 50, has survived six assassination attempts _ including one in which a suicide bomber jumped onto the windshield of his car and exploded himself.

"Kirkuk is my life, and I hope the rest of Iraq can use our example. We're the only ones who do attacks on the terrorists and not the other way around."

The Iraqi army is made up mostly of Shiites, so ethnic and sectarian balance is a concern in places like Kirkuk.

"I organized my men so that when we go out, we make sure there are Kurds, Christians, Arabs and Turkmen on each patrol," said Col. Samir Taher Rashid, 43, who commands Iraqi police on Kirkuk's north side. "I support federalism in Iraq, and in my units too."

He is referring to the potential division of the country into three mostly autonomous regions _ Kurds in the north, Sunnis in the center and west and Shiites in their homeland south of Baghdad.