US forces will hand over control of Anbar Province to Iraqi troops in the coming days, military officials said on Wednesday, touting improved security in the region.
“We believe the province could turn over to Iraqi control in just a few days,” Marine General James Conway said.
“The change in the Al-Anbar Province is real and perceptible,” Conway said of the majority Sunni region, which is Iraq’s largest province.
“Anbar remains a dangerous place, but the ever growing ability of the Iraqi security forces continues to move us closer to seeing Iraqi control of the province,” he said.
He expressed the hope that the handover of the province to Iraqi control would allow the Pentagon to redeploy troops elsewhere.
“More US forces are needed in Afghanistan,” he said. “However, in order to do more in Afghanistan, our Marines have got to see relief elsewhere.”
NATION-BUILDING
“They are doing a very good job of this nation-building business,” in Anbar, but “25,000 Marines in the province are probably being in excess of the need, especially after Iraqi provincial control assumes responsibilities for security,” Conway added.
“It’s our view that if there is a stiffer fight going someplace else, in a much more expeditionary environment where the Marine air-ground task force really seems to have a true and enduring value, then that’s where we need to be,” he said about Afghanistan.
The once-restive Anbar Province in western Iraq is home to former flashpoint cities of Ramadi and Fallujah, where deadly clashes between insurgents and US forces often roiled after the 2003 invasion to oust former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
Unrest began to taper off in late 2006 as tribal leaders joined with US forces to help oust al-Qaeda members in their midst.
The drop in violence comes amid growing pressure to beef up the US troop presence in Afghanistan, where the level of violence is higher.
About 145,000 US soldiers are currently on the ground in Iraq, but those numbers could decrease in coming months.
General David Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq, has said he would decide in the coming days or weeks whether to continue withdrawing troops from Iraq, and at what pace.
VIOLENCE
Meanwhile, violence continued elsewhere in Iraq. Most recently, a suicide bomber on Tuesday thwarted a security check at a police recruiting center in Jalawla, 150km north of Baghdad, killing himself and at least 25 others, police said.
Jalawla is in Diyala Province, considered to be one of the most dangerous in Iraq, and sees regular attacks by al-Qaeda-linked groups targeting “Awakening” units of Sunni former jihadists who are now cooperating with the US military.
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