Police to take over Salah al-Din security within weeks or months, ministry says

SALAH AL-DIN — The Interior Ministry expects to take over security in Salah al-Din in the coming weeks or months, its senior deputy said, three days after gunmen attacked an army position near Baiji in the same governorate.

“In the coming few weeks and months, the security file in this governorate will be handed over,” Hussein al-Awadi said during a visit on which he met the governor and reviewed preparations. The ministry plans to take on security in other governorates in the coming months as police assume a larger role in internal security. “The Interior Ministry has moved from the battle against terrorism to the battle against crime,” he said, adding that sustained security was needed for reconstruction.

The handover covers city centres rather than whole governorates. The government said this month that security in the city centres of Salah al-Din, Diyala, Nineveh and Kirkuk was being transferred from the army to the Interior Ministry, and the East Salah al-Din Operations Command was renamed the Badia Operations Command and moved to the Muthanna desert as the military was repositioned according to where remaining threats lie. The ministry said it had assumed 68% of city-centre security across Baghdad and six other governorates in the first quarter of this year.

Gunmen described by local officials as Islamic State remnants attacked an army position near Baiji late on Friday while approaching two main electricity transmission towers between Baiji and Haditha, and were driven off after a period of fighting with no casualties. The attack was on rural infrastructure near the district boundary, the kind of area that remains with the army under the restructuring.

Awadi said Salah al-Din had endured extensive militant violence and was now moving into a period focused on reconstruction and development.