Posted By:
Catherine Moy
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The United States and her allies are still moving forward in Iraq, with ony five provinces still under security by Americans.
The Los Angeles Times reports:

Reporting from Kut, Iraq—The U.S. military handed security responsibility for Wasit province to Iraqi authorities Wednesday, putting Baghdad in full control of 13 of the country’s 18 provinces, including all of those in the mostly Shiite Muslim south.

U.S. and Iraqi forces have been jointly seeking to shut down arms smuggling routes from Iran that use Wasit as a transit point before the weapons are taken elsewhere in Iraq. The weapons are thought to be going to Shiite militant groups.

Mowaffak Rubaie, the Iraqi national security advisor, lauded Wasit’s Iraqi security forces when he addressed the transfer ceremony in the provincial capital, Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad.

Wasit borders Iran and was a stronghold of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia before U.S.-backed Iraqi forces cracked down this year.

The No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin, said at the ceremony that Wasit in March saw a weekly average of as many as 18 attacks but now goes weeks without an incident.