Iraqis must depend less on the U.S. military, even if that means a bigger risk of violence in coming months, the war's top commander said Friday in an Associated Press interview.

''We have to take risk to a certain extent, by taking our hands off the controls,'' Gen. John Abizaid said one day after he escaped injury in a gun battle at an Iraqi security command post in the city of Fallujah.

During talks this week with American commanders in Baghdad, Fallujah and Balad, Abizaid stressed the importance of weaning the Iraqis from American assistance.

''It's their country, it's their future,'' he said in the interview at his headquarters in Qatar. ''Our job is to help them help themselves.''