Green Energy
Mon Jun 23, 12:01 PM ET Yahoo/Agence France Presse
The US military is to hand over security control of the former Sunni insurgent bastion of Anbar province to Iraqi forces in the next 10 days, a US military spokesman announced on Monday.
"The handover of Anbar is expected to take place in the next 10 days," Lieutenant David Russell told AFP, declining to provide an exact date. Anbar Province would be the tenth of Iraq's 18 provinces to be handed back to Iraqi forces by the US-led coalition amid a push to transfer security control of the entire country back to Baghdad. Anbar province in western Iraq, the country's largest, was the epicentre of a brutal Sunni Arab-led fight against the US military after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003.
In the early years of the insurgency, US forces fought raging battles in the province, especially in the capital Ramadi and the nearby city of Fallujah. Fallujah became the symbol of the ultra-violent insurgency before it was virtually razed to the ground in November 2004 by a US military assault launched to seize control of the city.
The US military has lost 1,295 service members in the province since the invasion, second only to Baghdad where it lost 1,308 troops, according to the indpendent website www.icasualties.org. The website says November 2004 remains the deadliest month for the military in Iraq. It lost 137 troops that month when it launched the Fallujah assault.
The violence in the country's largest province started ebbing in late 2006 when local Sunni tribes, weary of Al-Qaeda's religious extremism and brutal methods, switched allegiance and formed a local group to fight them. Since then Anbar has been hailed as a symbol of stability.
- Isis On The Threshold Of Baghdad
From Townhall: ISIS encroached on the outskirts of Baghdad today when three militants, disguised as Iraqi military, attacked a government office in Amiriyat Al-Falluja. The attack involved a suicide bombing and took the lives of at least eight people,...
- Islamic State Savages Burn 43 People Alive In Iraq
Remember we told you about that parade the other day? Yeah, well, THIS: The jihadist group Islamic State, or IS, burned alive on Saturday 43 people kidnapped in the western Iraqi province of Anbar, a security official told Efe. The IS militants...
- Isis Takes Abu Ghraib - Continues It's String Of Military Victories Despite Obama's Intense Aerial Bombardment
NEXT STOP, BAGHDAD The News Tribune reported:Islamic State militants have taken control of key cities in Iraq’s western province of Anbar and have begun to besiege one of the country’s largest military bases in a weeklong offensive that’s...
- Isis Loses Control Of Mosul Dam, Bombed By Us And Syria
From Jawa Report As the week continued ISIS continued to lose ground, suffering losses from US airstrikes and losing control of Iraq's largest dam to Kurdish forces.An offensive to wrest control of a critical dam in northern Iraq from Sunni militants...
- The Secret Letter From Iraq
A Marine's letter home, with its frank description of life in "Dante's inferno," has been circulating through generals' in-boxes. Time Magazine published with the author's approval with name withheld. All: I haven't written very much...
Green Energy
US Military to hand back Sunni bastion of Anbar Province to Iraq
Mon Jun 23, 12:01 PM ET Yahoo/Agence France Presse
The US military is to hand over security control of the former Sunni insurgent bastion of Anbar province to Iraqi forces in the next 10 days, a US military spokesman announced on Monday.
"The handover of Anbar is expected to take place in the next 10 days," Lieutenant David Russell told AFP, declining to provide an exact date. Anbar Province would be the tenth of Iraq's 18 provinces to be handed back to Iraqi forces by the US-led coalition amid a push to transfer security control of the entire country back to Baghdad. Anbar province in western Iraq, the country's largest, was the epicentre of a brutal Sunni Arab-led fight against the US military after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003.
In the early years of the insurgency, US forces fought raging battles in the province, especially in the capital Ramadi and the nearby city of Fallujah. Fallujah became the symbol of the ultra-violent insurgency before it was virtually razed to the ground in November 2004 by a US military assault launched to seize control of the city.
The US military has lost 1,295 service members in the province since the invasion, second only to Baghdad where it lost 1,308 troops, according to the indpendent website www.icasualties.org. The website says November 2004 remains the deadliest month for the military in Iraq. It lost 137 troops that month when it launched the Fallujah assault.
The violence in the country's largest province started ebbing in late 2006 when local Sunni tribes, weary of Al-Qaeda's religious extremism and brutal methods, switched allegiance and formed a local group to fight them. Since then Anbar has been hailed as a symbol of stability.
- Isis On The Threshold Of Baghdad
From Townhall: ISIS encroached on the outskirts of Baghdad today when three militants, disguised as Iraqi military, attacked a government office in Amiriyat Al-Falluja. The attack involved a suicide bombing and took the lives of at least eight people,...
- Islamic State Savages Burn 43 People Alive In Iraq
Remember we told you about that parade the other day? Yeah, well, THIS: The jihadist group Islamic State, or IS, burned alive on Saturday 43 people kidnapped in the western Iraqi province of Anbar, a security official told Efe. The IS militants...
- Isis Takes Abu Ghraib - Continues It's String Of Military Victories Despite Obama's Intense Aerial Bombardment
NEXT STOP, BAGHDAD The News Tribune reported:Islamic State militants have taken control of key cities in Iraq’s western province of Anbar and have begun to besiege one of the country’s largest military bases in a weeklong offensive that’s...
- Isis Loses Control Of Mosul Dam, Bombed By Us And Syria
From Jawa Report As the week continued ISIS continued to lose ground, suffering losses from US airstrikes and losing control of Iraq's largest dam to Kurdish forces.An offensive to wrest control of a critical dam in northern Iraq from Sunni militants...
- The Secret Letter From Iraq
A Marine's letter home, with its frank description of life in "Dante's inferno," has been circulating through generals' in-boxes. Time Magazine published with the author's approval with name withheld. All: I haven't written very much...