From MNF-I, Successful Anbar Model Validates Security Approach in Iraq.
WASHINGTON — When security responsibility for Iraq’s Anbar province was turned over to the Iraqi government this month, it validated the security model that has been applied throughout the country, a Coalition spokesman said Sept. 11.
Successful coordination of a surge in U.S. forces, the emergence of the Awakening movement, and political movement by the Iraqi government resulted in the weakening of the al Qaida in Iraq terrorist network into a more containable scattering of individual cells, said Rear Adm. Patrick Driscoll, director of strategic communications, Multi-National Force - Iraq.
Anbar province, Driscoll said, is “now kind of the model for how Iraqis have made the transition from really chasing al Qaida out of the cities and main areas and putting them on the run.”
The next steps in the process for Anbar residents involve embracing the political process and focusing on reconstruction and restoration of essential services, Driscoll said.
On Sept. 1, Iraqi civilian authorities assumed responsibility for security in Anbar through a transfer Coalition leaders call “provincial Iraqi control.” Anbar is the 11th of Iraq’s 18 provinces to gain that status, and the transfer is significant because Anbar is where the Sunni “Awakening” movement began when former insurgents turned against al Qaida in Iraq.
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