“The Iraqis are ready to take over this area. Our people are ready to come back to their homes and support the coalition and Iraqi forces,” Baladruz police chief Colonel Faris Radi said.
The Diyala Province, stretching from the eastern outskirts of Baghdad to the Iranian border, has been the scene of a major military crackdown against Sunni insurgents.
Renegade groups from the Mehdi Army militia of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr are also active in the province, which has a mixed population of Sunni and Shiite Arabs as well as Kurds and other ethnic minorities.
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