The transfer of security responsibilities from US troops to the government of Iraq's Shiite-dominated Diwaniyah province was postponed Monday due to bad weather, officials said.
The weather prevented Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and US military officials from flying to the province, General Othman al- Ghanimi, commander of the 8th division of the Iraqi army, reported dpa.
But an unnamed local official was quoted by VOI as saying that other reasons played a role, although no details were given.
The Polish Press Agency quoted sources close to US-led coalition forces as saying the handover ceremony was cancelled because of fears of a terrorist attack. Poland has 900 soldiers in Iraq.
Diwaniyah was to have been the 10th of Iraq's 18 provinces where coalition troops handed over control to Iraqi forces after six Shiite-dominated provinces in south and central Iraq and three in the northern Kurdish Autonomous Region.
The US military had planned to transfer security responsibilities to the local government in the Sunni province of Anbar on Saturday, but that was also postponed, ostensibly because of bad weather.
In a fresh outbreak of violence, an Iraqi judge, his wife and son were injured by a bomb that was placed outside their home on Palestine road in east Baghdad, court sources told VOI.
Another judge was hurt by a bomb that was planted in his car in Baghdad, security officials told VOI.
In the northern city of Kirkuk, scores of security personnel were detained for their alleged involvement in corruption cases and assisting terrorists, General Mohamed Tahir, a leading member of the local police department, told journalists.
Among the detained personnel are two policemen, who were allegedly plotting an attack on the US-led multinational forces.