From 'International Herald Tribune': The U.S. military on Monday handed over to the Iraqi government responsibility for the security of the western province of Anbar, once a stronghold of the Sunni insurgency and one of the most violent regions in Iraq. The transfer was made possible, Iraqi and U.S. officials said, by an increase in Iraqi security forces and a reduction of violence largely attributed to the local forces known as Awakening Councils. It is the first handover of a province bordering Baghdad. Other provinces that have been shifted to Iraqi control have been in the less troublesome south and in the northern Kurdish region.
Iraqi security forces at Anbar handover ceremony in Ramadi - Sept. 1
The transfer ceremony took place in the center of Ramadi, which two years ago was destroyed by almost daily battles between the U.S. military and insurgents. Now, Ramadi has largely been rebuilt, and the number of deaths of American soldiers has fallen to near zero. "You have lost a lot of blood and life to reach this day," said Mowaffak al-Rubaie, the Iraqi national security adviser, on Monday. "This would have been a dream two or three years ago. This was the cradle of Al Qaeda."
President George W. Bush hailed the handover in a statement released by the White House, praising "the courage of our troops, the Iraqi Security Forces, and the brave tribes and other civilians from Anbar who worked alongside them." The United States military has reduced the number of its troops in Anbar to 25,000 from 37,000 in February and the Iraqi police force has grown to 28,000, up from 5,000 three years ago, according to the U.S. Marine Corps. American forces were originally scheduled to transfer control in late June, but the transfer was postponed. At the time, U.S. military officials said that a dust storm had made it impossible to fly dignitaries in for a ceremony.
No comments:
Post a Comment