U.S. transfers Najaf control to Iraqi security

BAGHDAD, Iraq – U.S. forces handed over control of the southern province of Najaf to Iraqi security forces on Wednesday while violence continued in the Iraqi capital, with car bombs killing at least 12 people.

Najaf, the scene of heavy fighting two years ago, is the third Iraqi province to be turned over to Iraqi forces. Fifteen more are still under the control of U.S.-led coalition forces.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has said repeatedly that he wants to speed up the transfer of authority over Iraq’s provinces from coalition forces to the Iraqi police and army. The U.S. military has troops embedded with Iraqi forces to train them to handle security responsibilities on their own.

Elsewhere, at 7 a.m., a car bomb exploded near Baghdad University in the southwestern Jadriya district. Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Kareem al-Kinani said 11 people were killed and 17 wounded.

Today, a suicide bomber targeted a police academy in the Iraqi capital, killing at least 10 people, police said.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military reported that a roadside bomb killed one soldier and wounded four Wednesday southwest of Baghdad. In Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed one soldier and wounded two, the military said.

The U.S. military also announced Wednesday that coalition soldiers on Dec. 14 captured an al-Qaida leader suspected of attacks last year in Baghdad and Mosul that resulted in hundreds of civilian deaths, including the downing of a coalition helicopter and suicide car bombings.