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| Iraq | |
| Iraq says to take control of province in July | |
| 2008-06-16 | |
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq will take over security responsibility for another southern province from U.S. forces in July, a Defence Ministry spokesman said on Sunday. Qadisiya, also known as Diwaniya because that is the name of its capital, would be the 10th of Iraq's 18 provinces to return to Iraqi control. It has been relatively violence-free this year.
The ninth province to return to Iraqi control was the oil- rich southern province of Basra, which Britain handed over last December, marking the end of nearly five years of British control of southern Iraq. So far the provinces under Iraqi control are either in the Kurdish north or the Shi'ite south. U.S. forces still control provinces with large Sunni Arab populations, such as the western province of Anbar, which used to be the main stronghold of al Qaeda insurgents. The handover of Anbar to Iraqi control, once pencilled in for March or April, is now expected in the next few weeks. Some scepticism about whether Iraqi security forces are ready to take control of hotspots has been allayed by recent security operations. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki sent Iraqi security forces to tackle Shi'ite militias in Basra and Baghdad and launched a crackdown against al Qaeda in the northern town of Mosul, strengthening government authority in areas previously outside its control. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
