Posted By:
Catherine Moy
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As certain canidates, uh-hum, try to cover their hindends about failures to believe in our troops, the United States is set to hand over another province to Iraqis. This was a bloody Sunni battleground in the dark days of the Iraqi war. But our troops did their jobs, and some of our politicians believed in them. Believed and gave them the tools to do their work.

So here’s another win in freedom’s column:

Iraq: U.S. to hand over former Sunni battleground
RAMADI, Iraq (AFP) — The US military will next week hand over to Iraqi forces security control of Anbar, a Sunni Arab province where some of the war’s bloodiest battles have been fought, the provincial police chief said on Thursday.
“September 1 is the official date for the transfer of the security file of Anbar from US forces to the Iraqi military command,” Tareq al-Dulaimi told AFP.
“We’ve been ready for several months, and our forces are completely ready to take over responsibility.”
It will be the first mainly Sunni Arab province where security control is being handed over from US to Iraqi forces.
The announcement came after US Marine General James Conway said on Wednesday that Iraqi security forces were now ready to take over responsibility for the province—Iraq’s largest and a former bastion of Sunni Arab insurgents.
“The change in the Al-Anbar province is real and perceptible,” Conway said in Washington.
Anbar will be the 11th of Iraq’s 18 provinces to be handed over by the US-led coalition, which currently has 28,000 soldiers there, down from 37,000 in February, according to US army figures.
The number of Iraqi soldiers and police in Anbar has grown to 37,000 from just 5,000 three years ago.
Of the 10 provinces already handed over, three are Kurdish and seven Shiite.

Go to AFP for the rest of the story.