Iraqis Ready to Control Some Cities

"BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraqi troops are ready to take control of some cities as a first step toward sending home American and other foreign soldiers, Iraq's prime minister said Tuesday. But he rejected any timetable for a pullout.

Underscoring the ongoing security crisis, gunmen killed four Iraqi human rights activists in Baghdad, a car bomb killed at least three people in the northern city of Kirkuk, and a U.S. soldier died of wounds suffered in a land mine explosion.

Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari warned against setting a timetable for foreign troops to leave "at a time when we are not ready" to confront the insurgents.

But he said security in many of Iraq's 18 provinces - notably in the Shiite south and the Kurdish-controlled north - has improved so that Iraqi forces could assume the burden of maintaining order in cities there."
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