BAGHDAD - IRAQI forces took control of towns and cities across the country yesterday after United States forces completed a pullback to bases outside cities, a milestone in the country's recovery six years after the US-led invasion.

Iraqis celebrated into the night, but soldiers and police were out in force to prevent insurgents from spoiling the party.

The government declared yesterday a national holiday and official cars were decorated with streamers and flowers.

Iraqi security forces paraded in tanks and armoured vehicles across Baghdad. Revellers took to the streets to toot on trumpets and beat on drums while martial music and history documentaries filled television screens.

US military officers visited Iraqi bases in several regions to wish their counterparts well. 'We are behind you,' Colonel Ryan Gonsalves, commander of US troops near the northern city of Kirkuk, assured officers of the Iraqi 12th Army Division. 'It's their day, their sovereignty,' he said later in an interview.

But yesterday's withdrawal - the pre- lude to a complete American pullout by the end of 2011 under a security agreement signed last year - also raised fears that the 650,000-member Iraqi military is not ready to maintain stability and deal with a stubborn insurgency.

The worries are that violence will rise, with Shi'ites fearing more bombings by Sunni militants and Sunnis fearing that the Shi'ite-dominated Iraqi security forces will give them little protection.

Privately, many US officers worry the Iraqis will be overwhelmed if violence surges, having relied for years on the Americans for nearly everything.

If the Iraqis can hold down violence in the coming months, it will show that the country is finally on the road to stability. If they fail, it will pose a challenge to US President Barack Obama's pledge to end an unpopular war that has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Iraqis.

Despite yesterday's formal pullback, some US troops will remain in the cities to train and advise Iraqi forces.

Read the full story in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.