U.S. to hand over former Iraqi insurgent flashpoint
The U.S. military hands over Iraq's western Anbar province to Iraqi security forces on Monday, less than two years after the region was all but lost to a Sunni Arab insurgency.
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"If we had said that we were going to hand over security responsibility from the foreign troops to civilian authority, people would laugh at us. Now I think it's a reality."
Anbar is the 11th out of Iraq's 18 provinces and the first Sunni Arab province to be returned to Iraqi control since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein.
Anbar's government headquarters was draped with colourful tribal flags when hundreds of people turned out to see U.S., Iraqi and tribal officials, many wearing traditional desert garb, preside over the handover ceremony.
The turnover in the desert region had been slated for June, but was delayed due to a row between local political leaders.
Lt. Colonel Chris Hughes, spokesman for the U.S. Marines in western Iraq said the handover was largely ceremonial since Iraqi forces had been operating independently for several months.
Anbar, with little oil wealth but strategic importance in its borders with Syria, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, was once a haven for Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and the scene of fierce battles against U.S. forces and Iraq's Shi'ite-led government.
Some of the bloodiest fights in more than five years of war have taken place in Anbar, including two devastating assaults by U.S. forces on the city of Falluja in 2004.
The first of those is thought to have killed hundreds of civilians and the second left many parts of the city in ruins.
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