02 September 2008
Iraqis Reclaim Anbar Province, Says Bush
Turnaround in former terrorist stronghold sign of Iraq’s success
Washington -- Coalition forces have returned security responsibilities for Iraq’s Anbar province to Iraqi authorities, says President Bush, who added that the region’s dramatic turnaround is a testament to the Iraqi people’s commitment to confront extremism and build democracy.
“Not long ago, Anbar was one of the most dangerous provinces in Iraq,” Bush said in a September 1 statement. “Anbar has been transformed and reclaimed by the Iraqi people.”
Iraqi security forces have been operating independently for the past two months in Anbar, say U.S Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker and Coalition commander General David Petraeus in a joint statement following a ceremony marking the handover, which they praised as “a positive step on the path to Iraq's self-reliance.”
With Anbar’s return, 11 of Iraq’s 18 provinces are now under provincial Iraqi control.
“Not in our wildest dreams could we have imagined this,” Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq’s national security adviser, told The New York Times during the handover ceremony. “Two or three years ago, had we suggested that the Iraqis could take responsibility, we would have been ridiculed, we would have been laughed at.”
Iraq’s largest province, Anbar is home to many of the country’s Sunni Muslims, who formed insurgent groups in the months following Saddam Hussein’s removal by U.S.-led forces. Bordering Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, Anbar also became a stronghold for al-Qaida in Iraq. Al-Qaida smuggled gunmen, weapons and suicide bombers into the country as part of its campaign to topple Iraq’s democratically elected government by inciting ethnic and sectarian tensions.
“They tried to present themselves as a religious organization connected with the Sunni faith. They have nothing to do with the Sunni faith,” said Anbar provincial governor Ma'amoun Sami Rasheed in a September 2 press briefing from Ramadi. “All they are are gangs of criminals. … All they believe in is the destruction of life.”
By 2006, Anbar’s provincial capital, Ramadi, as well as its second largest city, Fallujah, saw some of the country’s fiercest fighting, while al-Qaida in Iraq sought to further strengthen its hold in the region by imposing its extremist views on area residents and targeting anyone who stood in its way.
“After the terrorists started killing the heads of the tribes, the tribes realized that the al-Qaida and the terrorists were nothing but killers and criminals,” Rashid said. “Our determination and belief in democracy and freedom is what gave us the strength to continue to fight.”
“Iraqis -- like countless other Muslims across the world -- witnessed al-Qaida’s brutality firsthand and rejected it,” Bush said, ushering in Iraq’s “Anbar Awakening,” as thousands of local citizens, elected officials and tribal leaders came together to rise up against the terrorists.
Bush’s 2007 “surge strategy” sent 4,000 additional U.S. Marines to Anbar to support Iraqi security forces and the “Sons of Iraq” -- a group of area residents, including former Sunni insurgents. Together they provided a security umbrella that set the stage for political and economic development. (See “Surge Puts Iraq Back on Track, Says Bush.”)
Attacks against Iraqi and coalition forces in Anbar have dropped by more than 90 percent since the beginning of the surge, says the Defense Department, and Coalition troop presence continues to shrink in the region with improving security.
“Today, Anbar is no longer lost to al-Qaida -- it is al-Qaida that lost Anbar,” Bush said.
Remaining Coalition forces will withdraw to bases outside Anbar’s major population centers, according to a White House fact sheet, but will be available to assist Iraqi authorities if needed.
Al-Qaida has been weakened but remains a threat to Iraq’s fledgling democracy, Bush said, as do Iranian-backed militias active elsewhere in the country.
Bush’s statement, a related fact sheet, and the Crocker-Petraeus statement are available from America.gov.
