Pat Dollard | Young Americans

QUAGMIRE! Oh wait….NO BLOOD FOR OIL! Nope not that one..

August 27, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US forces will hand over control of Anbar province to Iraqi troops in the coming days, military officials said Wednesday, touting improved security in the region.

“We believe the province could turn over to Iraqi control in just a few days,” Marine General James Conway said.

“The change in the Al-Anbar province is real and perceptible,” said Conway of the majority Sunni region, which is Iraq’s largest.

“Anbar remains a dangerous place but the ever growing ability of the Iraqi security forces continues to move us closer to seeing Iraqi control of the province.”

“They are doing a very good job of this nation-building business” in Anbar Conway added.

The once-restive province in western Iraq is home to former flashpoint cities of Ramadi and Fallujah, where deadly clashes between insurgents and US forces often roiled after the 2003 invasion to oust Saddam Hussein.

Unrest began to taper off in late 2006 as tribal leaders joined with US forces to help oust Al-Qaeda nests in their midst.

Conway expressed the hope that the handover of the Anbar province to Iraqi control will allow the Pentagon to redeploy troops elsewhere.

“It’s our view that if there is a stiffer fight going some place else, in a much more expeditionary environment where the Marine air-ground task force really seems to have a true and enduring value, then that’s where we need to be,” Conway said.

Meanwhile, violence continued elsewhere in Iraq. Most recently, a suicide bomber thwarted a security check at a police recruiting center in Jalawla, 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of Baghdad Tuesday, killing himself and at least 25 others, police said.

Jalawla, in Diyala province, is considered to be one of the most dangerous in Iraq, and sees regular attacks by Al-Qaeda-linked groups targeting “Awakening” units of Sunni former jihadists who now are cooperating with the American military.

Awakening groups began in Anbar province when Sunni tribal leaders turned on their former allies in 2006, and similar groups have sprung up throughout Iraq.

Wednesday’s announcement of the impending handover of Anbar was seen in the United States as a political boon to the administration of President George W. Bush and his hopeful Republican successor in November’s election, John McCain.

Success in Iraq was likely to be a major theme when the Republicans next week hold their convention to nominate McCain as the party’s candidate for the White House.

Democrat Barack Obama, who has demanded an end to the war and a rapid pullback of US combat troops, could suffer politically if vehement anti-war sentiment diminishes, pundits say.

This week, Iraqi officials said Washington and Baghdad have agreed there will be no foreign forces in Iraq after 2011, setting a timeline for a US withdrawal from the war-torn country.

Under the 27-point deal all American combat troops will be withdrawn by 2011 and from Iraqi cities by next June, negotiator Mohammed al-Haj Hammoud told AFP in Baghdad.