Top U.S. General: Iraqis 'Ready to Assume' Control of Country

Aug. 8, 2010 — -- The commander of U.S. forces in Iraq told Christiane Amanpour that Iraqi forces are ready to take control of combat operations in their country, even as violence has spiked in recent week.

U.S. forces handed over all combat duties to Iraqis this weekend. "We do believe [the Iraqi military is] ready to assume full operations in Iraq," Gen. Ray Odierno said this morning.

In an exclusive "This Week" interview, the general said that the Iraqis' assumption of responsibility for the security of Iraq was not sudden.

"We've been working for a very long with the Iraqi security forces," he said. "For the last 20 months, we've been slowly and deliberately handing over more and more responsibility to them, and they have stepped up," Odierno said via satellite from Baghdad.

"We continue to help them and that will continue after [the first of] September," he said, referring to the deadline by which U.S. forces will supposedly end combat operations in the country.

Two huge blasts rocked Iraqi's second largest city, Basra, on Saturday, killing at least 43 people.

"I think it probably was" a terrorist attack, Odierno said. "My guess, it was some sort of an improvised explosive device that went off."

There was more violence in Iraq this weekend: car bombs and improvised explosive devices across the country killed at least eight people, according to The Associated Press.

"We have ups and downs here," Odierno said. "As I step back, having been here since the dark days of 2006 and 2007, to where we are today, what I see is a broad change in the security environment in Iraq."

"However," Odierno added, "there are still groups out there that are conducting terrorist acts against the people of Iraq and they are doing this to stop the political way forward ... to stop democracy moving forward and to cause the government of Iraq not to continue its progress. And that's what we're seeing playing out on the ground now."