RAMADI, Iraq (AFP) — 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 top US officer in the provincial capital Ramadi, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of Baghdad, 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 which were reduced to ruins in battles between US forces and an alliance of tribes, nationalists, Saddam Hussein loyalists and Al-Qaeda fighters.
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.
Ramadi alone now has 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."
Charlton said Iraqi soldiers and police were already in charge of most of the province's security, and US-led coalition troops now made virtually no arrests.
Coalition troops would be ready to step in at any time should Iraqi commanders ask for assistance.
"The only time we would not agree to something is if it puts coalition lives at risk. Otherwise it is up to them, and they are already making the decisions to a large degree," he said.
Charlton said he expected a grand handover ceremony similar to the one held when Iraq formally took security control of the southern oil province of Basra from British forces in December.
If the Anbar handover takes place in March, it would coincide with the fifth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq.
Sunni-dominated Anbar province was the centre of the fierce resistance against the presence of US forces in Iraq after the 2003 invasion.
In 2004, Fallujah was the scene of battle between US troops and insurgents during which residents fled and two-thirds of the city was destroyed.
Under Saddam Hussein's regime, Anbar had provided many of the officers in the Iraqi army and Al-Qaeda in 2006 declared Ramadi the capital of its so-called "Islamic State of Iraq."
But, over the past year, attacks in Ramadi have dropped from 25-30 every day to less than one a week.
The number of roadside bombs has declined by 90 percent, according to latest US military figures, with the efforts of the Anbar Awakening being mainly credited for the turnaround.
"This will be a huge step forward," said Charlton. "Anbar being the largest province will make the handover pretty noteworthy -- especially given it was one of the worst areas in Iraq, and was an Al-Qaeda stronghold for years."
If Anbar is handed over on schedule, it will be the 10th of Iraq's 18 provinces to be returned to local control by the coalition.
Sheikh Ahmed Abu Reesha, leader of the "Anbar Awakening", warned at the weekend that a rapid US withdrawal from Iraq would spark a return of savage sectarian violence because the Iraqi army was not capable of ensuring peace.
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