BAGHDAD — Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki shrugged off U.S. doubts of his government’s military and political progress yesterday, saying Iraqi forces are capable and American troops can leave “any time they want.”
One of his top aides, meanwhile, accused the United States of embarrassing the Iraqi government by violating human rights and treating his country like an “experiment in an American laboratory.”
Mr. al-Maliki sought to display confidence at a time when pressure is mounting in the U.S. Congress for a speedy withdrawal of U.S. forces. On Thursday, the House passed a measure calling for the United States to withdraw its troops by spring, hours after the White House reported mixed progress by the Iraqi government toward meeting 18 benchmarks.
During a press conference, Mr. al-Maliki shrugged off the progress report, saying that difficulty in enacting the reforms was “natural,” given Iraq’s turmoil.
“We are not talking about a government in a stable political environment, but one in the shadow of huge challenges,” Mr. al-Maliki said. “So when we talk about the presence of some negative points in the political process, that’s fairly natural.”
Mr. al-Maliki said his government needs “time and effort” to enact the political reforms that Washington seeks — “particularly since the political process is facing security, economic and services pressures, as well as regional and international interference.”
But he said if necessary, Iraqi police and soldiers could fill the void left by the departure of coalition forces.
“We say in full confidence that we are able, God willing, to take the responsibility completely in running the security file if the international forces withdraw at any time they want,” he said.
In Washington, White House spokesman Tony Fratto declined to respond directly to Mr. al-Maliki’s comments. “Coalition forces are in Iraq at the invitation of the Iraqi government,” Mr. Fratto said.
One of Mr. al-Maliki’s close advisers, Shi’ite lawmaker Hassan al-Suneid, bristled over the American pressure, telling the Associated Press that “the situation looks as if it is an experiment in an American laboratory [judging] whether we succeed or fail.”
He sharply criticized the U.S. military, saying it was committing human rights violations and embarrassing the Iraqi government through such tactics as building a wall around Baghdad’s Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah and carrying out repeated raids on suspected Shi’ite militiamen in the capital’s slum of Sadr City.
He also criticized U.S. overtures to Sunni groups in Anbar and Diyala provinces, encouraging former insurgents to join the fight against al Qaeda in Iraq. “These are gangs of killers,” he said.
In addition, he said Mr. al-Maliki has problems with the top U.S. commander, Gen. David H. Petraeus, whom he said works along a “purely American vision.”
“There are disagreements that the strategy that Petraeus is following might succeed in confronting al Qaeda in the early period, but it will leave Iraq an armed nation, an armed society and militias,” Mr. al-Suneid said.
Mr. al-Suneid’s comments were a rare show of frustration toward the Americans from within Mr. al-Maliki’s inner circle as the prime minister struggles to overcome deep divisions between Shi’ite, Sunni and Kurdish members of his coalition and enact the U.S.-drawn list of benchmarks.
U.S. forces have been waging intensified security crackdowns in Baghdad and areas to the north and south for nearly a month.
Two more American soldiers were killed yesterday in bombings in the Baghdad area, the U.S. military reported. One of the bombs used was an explosively formed penetrator — high-tech devices that the U.S. military says are smuggled in from Iran. The Iranians deny the charge.
In other violence, a car bomb leveled a two-story apartment building and a suicide bomber plowed his explosives-packed vehicle into a line of cars at a gas station. The two attacks killed at least eight persons, police said.
Also yesterday, the U.S. military said it captured a suspected high-level al Qaeda in Iraq cell leader at Baghdad’s international airport.
c Staff writer Jon Ward in Washington contributed to this report.
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