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| Iraq |
| US sets timetable for handover of Anbar |
| 2008-01-16 |
| RAMADI, Iraq - The US military will hand over to Iraqi control the huge province of Anbar within three months, a senior officer said, reflecting a sharp turnaround for a region once a hotbed of insurgency. Colonel John Charlton, the senior US officer in the provincial capital Ramadi, told AFP that Anbar would be officially returned to Iraqi authorities in March or April. The plan would mean local rule for both Ramadi and Fallujah, Anbar’s major cities. Security has been transformed in the western province over the past year after Sunni tribal leaders turned against Al Qaeda and switched loyalty to the US military, their former enemy. The tribal “Awakening” groups also backed the rapidly-expanding Iraqi police, which now monitors movement into and within the province through a dense web of checkpoints. In Ramadi alone there are now 5,100 Iraqi soldiers, 8,100 district police and 1,700 other official security personnel, according to the US military. “There is going to be a big level of handover,” Charlton said at the US base west of the city on Sunday. “Provincial Iraqi control means just that: Iraqis will be in charge of all aspects of the province from security to governance, and our role becomes purely advisory at that point,” he said. “We are not going to do the handover all at once. This has been a process that has started months ago and each day we take a step closer towards that, and then it becomes official in March or April.” |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #4 Whoops! I mean: ]]]]]]]]]]]]] ]]]]]]]]]]]]] |
| Posted by: gorb 2008-01-16 07:12 |
| #3 ]]]]]]]]]]]]] ]]]]]]]]]]]]] |
| Posted by: gorb 2008-01-16 07:12 |
| #2 No, no, Gorb. They got a timetable now, so they'll just shut up and go away. Oh, I'm sorry. I must have dozed off at the keyboard. I was dreaming. Get it? |
| Posted by: Bobby 2008-01-16 06:42 |
| #1 Libs compare timetable for handover of Anbar to timetable for handover of Iraq in 10 ... 9 ... |
| Posted by: gorb 2008-01-16 02:07 |