Iraq's prime minister Saturday said Iraqi forces are ready to provide full security in the nation whenever U.S. troops leave. Nouri al-Maliki told reporters that Iraqi troops can assume complete responsibility for security at any time.
But Mr. Maliki added that Iraqi forces still need more training and equipment.
Earlier this week, a U.S. government report on the war said that Iraq has achieved limited military and political progress.
Separately Saturday, the U.S. military in Iraq said troops discovered 46 rocket launchers aimed at a U.S. army base south of Baghdad on Thursday.
The statement says 34 of the launchers were armed with Iranian rockets.
Reuters news agency Saturday said an Iraqi translator they employed was killed along with his two brothers in Baghdad on Wednesday. The agency says it appears to have been a sectarian killing.
Reuters says the translator is survived by two young daughters and a wife.
Also Saturday, the U.S. military said troops killed six terrorists and detained 18 suspects during operations in central and northern Iraq.
The military says troops engaged a group of armed men using women and children as human shields in Diyala province. It says troops called in an airstrike that killed six of the terrorists after the civilians were released.
In Mosul, the military says a man believed to be a senior leader of al-Qaida in Iraq surrendered during a raid. Coalition forces also detained the suspected leader of a car bomb network southeast of Baghdad.
Separately, Iraqi police say gunmen stormed a house south of Baghdad and killed eight members of the family that lived there. - VOA News
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