Iraqi forces to take control of security in Anbar Province

This story did not get a lot of attention for some reason.

The U.S. military will transfer control of security in Anbar Province to Iraqi forces this week, the governor of the region said Monday, a remarkable turnaround given that the region was considered lost to insurgents less than two years ago.

Anbar will be the 10th of 18 provinces in Iraq to return security matters to Iraqi control since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003, but it will be the first Sunni Arab region to do so.

Mamun Sami Rasheed, governor of Anbar Province, said the handover ceremony would take place Saturday. "We have been dreaming of this event since 2003," he said.

The commander of U.S. forces in western Iraq, Major General John Kelly of the marines, said the change in security responsibilities showed that Iraqi forces were increasingly ready to defend Iraq against threats like those posed by Al Qaeda.

Anbar Province is "an important milestone," Kelly said. "It changes the nature of our security relationship here."

But the change does not mean that Al Qaeda has been defeated in the region. "What it represents is the improving capability of Iraqi security forces to deal with the threat," Kelly said.

Anbar was once the heartland of the Sunni Arab insurgency against U.S. forces and successive Shiite-led administrations that took over in Baghdad following the downfall of Saddam Hussein, who was from the minority Sunni Arab community.