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.
Over a few hours under gray skies, dozens of combat planes and helicopters roar on and off the flight deck of the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier, in a demonstration of US military power in some of the world’s most hotly contested waters. MH-60 Seahawk helicopters and F/A-18 Hornet jets bearing pilot call signs such as “Fozzie Bear,” “Pig Sweat” and “Bongoo” emit deafening screams as they land in the drizzle on the Nimitz, which is leading a carrier strike group that entered the South China Sea two weeks ago. US Rear Admiral Christopher Sweeney, who is commanding the group, said the tour
Sitting in a lotus position, four men weave glittering beads through gold thread on an organza sheet, carefully constructing a wedding dress that would soon wow crowds at Paris Fashion Week. For once, the French couturier behind the design, Julien Fournie, is determined to put these craftsmen in the spotlight. His new collection, which showed in Paris on Tuesday, was entirely made with fabrics from Mumbai. He said that a sort of “design imperialism” means that French fashion houses often play down that their fabrics are made outside France. “The houses which don’t admit it are perhaps afraid of losing their clientele,” Fournie
A court in Thailand sentenced a 27-year-old political activist to 28 years in prison on Thursday for posting messages on Facebook that it said defamed the country’s monarchy, while two young women charged with the same offense continued a hunger strike after being hospitalized. The court in the northern province of Chiang Rai found that Mongkhon Thirakot contravened the lese majeste law in 14 of 27 posts for which he was arrested in August last year. The law covers the king, queen and heirs, and any regent. The lese majeste law carries a prison term of three to 15 years per incident for
INSTABILITY: The country has seen a 33 percent increase in land that cultivates poppies since the military took over the government in 2021, a UN report said The production of opium in Myanmar has flourished since the military’s seizure of power, with the cultivation of poppies up by one-third in the past year, as eradication efforts have dropped and the faltering economy has led more people toward the drug trade, a UN report released yesterday showed. Last year, the first full growing season since the military wrested control of the country from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, saw a 33 percent increase in Myanmar’s cultivation area to 40,100 hectares, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime report said. “Economic, security and governance disruptions
RSS