U.S. hands back a quieter Anbar

[DixieBelle]

RAMADI, Iraq — The American military handed over 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, to the Iraqi government on Monday, a long-delayed milestone.

The transfer was made possible, Iraqi and American 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, where there has been intense sectarian conflict. Other provinces that have been shifted to Iraqi control have been in the less troublesome south and in the northern Kurdish region.

The transfer ceremony took place in the center of this city, which two years ago had been destroyed by almost daily battles between the American military and insurgents. Now, Ramadi has been rebuilt, and the number of deaths of American soldiers has fallen virtually to zero.

“You have lost a lot of blood and life to reach this day,” said Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq’s national security adviser. “This would have been a dream tow or three years ago. This was the cradle of Al Qaeda.”

President Bush hailed the handover. In a statement released by the White House, he credited “the courage of our troops, the Iraqi Security Forces, and the brave tribes and other civilians from Anbar who worked alongside them.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/02/world/middleeast/02anbar.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Milestone today. Buried under the other news....