Control of south-central Iraq handed over to Poles

The US has handed military control over a huge swathe of Iraq to a Polish commander during a ceremony in the ruins of an amphitheatre built by Alexander the Great near Babylon.

In Najaf, meanwhile, the increasingly powerful brother of slain Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim said Shiites would not take up arms against the US-led occupation force, but suggested his Badr Brigade had been rearmed – in defiance of coalition orders – to “defend ourselves”.