With 15 of 26 Iraqi government ministries already under Iraqi control, Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) spokesman Dan Senor says the remaining 11 will be transferred by week's end.

"[T]oday I can announce that by the end of this week, all remaining ministries will be turned over to the Iraqi ministers," said Senor during a June 21 press briefing in Baghdad. "So by this time next week, every single minister will have control of their respective ministry," he added.

Senor further noted that more than 1.3 million Iraqis work for the national government, "and by the end of this week, all of them will be reporting to Iraqi supervisors and Iraqi ministers."

Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of coalition operations for Multinational Force Iraq (MNF-I), who briefed along with Senor, said that in the previous 24 hours, the coalition detained 47 anti-coalition suspects and released 19 detainees. Another 157 detainees are scheduled for release from Abu Ghraib prison June 22-23, he said.

Kimmitt reported that 843 Iraqi army officers, including 11 women, graduated this week from the Jordanian military academy under MNF-I's training program for the Iraqi armed forces.

"Graduation from this academy marks the second and final class of Iraqi army officers to complete the courses in Jordan, and this completes officer training for the Iraqi army's three programmed divisions," Kimmitt said. He added that the training included courses for: company and platoon leaders, brigade and battalion staff officers, and brigade and battalion commanders.

"Iraqi officer and enlisted initial entry training will now almost entirely be conducted by Iraqi army trainers," Kimmitt noted.

Going through a list of recent violent clashes, he said on the morning of June 21, four U.S. servicemen were killed in a combat operation near Ramadi.

Kimmitt also said that an Iraqi district advisory council chairman and a vice chairman in northeastern Baghdad were shot June 20. The vice chairman was killed, and the chairman is in intensive care.

Also on June 20, a South Korean citizen, Kim Sun-il, was taken hostage. "The Jama'at al-Tawhid and Jihad group, believed to be led by Abu Musaab al- Zarqawi, are threatening to behead Kim Sun if Seoul fails to withdraw its troops from Iraq in 24 hours," Kimmitt said.

Senor referred journalists to statements by the South Korean government regarding its intentions but also noted that the coalition gives high priority to any hostage taken, whether civilian or military. "We obviously want to pursue this as expeditiously as possible -- seek his safe release, minimize bloodshed in the process," he said.

Kimmitt said that on June 19, coalition forces conducted a raid in the vicinity of Mahmudiyah to capture someone suspected of being involved in the kidnapping of the Italian hostages. Three men, including the target, were detained in the operation, he said.

CENTRAL COMMAND UPDATE: COURT MARTIAL PRE-TRIAL HEARINGS

The U.S. Central Command issued a statement June 21 that reviewed the results of pre-trial motions in the courts martial of military personnel charged with prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib. The statement, attributed to Colonel Jill Morgenthaler, MNF-I public affairs officer, said pre-trial hearings were held June 21 in the cases of Sergeant Javal Davis and Corporal Charles Graner. The defense made motions for:

-- New Article 32 hearings [the military equivalent of a grand jury investigation] (denied by the judge);

-- Assignment of an investigator to each defense team (the government counsel agreed);

-- Several discovery issues (the government agreed to many, including providing the defense team with access to the relevant detainees' files, declassifying some witnesses' statements from the Taguba Report [the report which followed Major General Antonio Taguba's investigation into alleged abuse of prisoners by members of the 800th Military Police Brigade at the Abu Ghraib Prison in Baghdad in late 2003], and access to several high-ranking general officers and others in the Coalition Joint Task Force 7 chain of command);

-- Change of venue based on the belief that civilian witnesses would refuse to travel to Iraq (denied by the judge at this time); and

-- Preserving the detention facility at Abu Ghraib as a crime scene (the judge agreed).

The U.S. government, for its part, requested a court order for all potential panel members to avoid any media coverage on these cases (the judge agreed). Morgenthaler's statement also indicated that the judge set July 31 as the deadline for filing additional motions.

In another June 21 pre-trial hearing for Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick, the military judge recessed court until July 23 to allow the civilian defense counsel to appear in Iraq. His civilian lawyer had sought to participate in the proceedings by telephone because of security risks in Iraq.