World Sep. 01, 2008 - 06:10AM JST ( 10 )

RAMADI, Iraq —

Iraqi and U.S. troops were on alert on Sunday in Anbar, once the fiercest battleground in the war-torn country, as the American military prepared to transfer security control to local forces.

“Our forces are ready to take the security responsibility tomorrow (Monday),” Majid al-Assafi, the new police chief of Anbar, said.

“They are controlling the situation. Our troops are on alert to avert any failure of the transfer,” he said.

Anbar, now a symbol of stability in Iraq, will be the first predominantly Sunni Arab province to be transferred to the Iraqis by the U.S. military. It will also be the 11th of Iraq’s 18 provinces to be handed over.

After the transfer, U.S. forces will withdraw to their bases and will take part in any military operation only if requested by the provincial governor.

The U.S. military stepped up patrols on the main streets of the provincial capital Ramadi, where markets were open as shoppers stocked up on goods a day before Sunnis begin fasting for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Locals, however, were mixed in their opinion over the transfer.

“We are happy that Iraqi forces will be in control now of the security rather than the foreign troops. That is how it should be. Iraqis should protect the Iraqis,” said Ahmed Abdul Salam, 30.

Thar Mohammed, another Ramadi resident, was skeptical about the readiness of Iraqi forces.

“Our forces are not ready to take responsibility for the situation. I am sorry to say, but there is lot of corruption in our security forces,” he said.

Sunni Arabs in Anbar were the first to turn against U.S. forces after the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s regime by U.S.-led invasion forces in 2003, mounting a raging insurgency that tore through the world’s most sophisticated military.

In the first years after the invasion, the province of nearly two million people became the theater of a brutal war focused on the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, while a string of towns along the Euphrates valley became insurgent strongholds and later safe havens for al-Qaida.

Since the start of the Iraq conflict, around one third of U.S. forces or 1,305 troops, have been killed in the country’s biggest province which shares borders with Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria.

The most lethal threat to U.S. troops, “improvised explosive devices” or makeshift bombs, first made their appearance in Anbar, causing more than 40% of American casualties between 2003 and 2006.

The insurgency also killed around 6,000 civilians in the province, according to independent website Iraqbodycount.org.

The violence in Anbar began ebbing only after local Sunni Arab tribes—weary of al-Qaida’s extreme brutality—revolted against the jihadists in September 2006 and sided with U.S. forces.

Sunni tribes formed Sahwa (Awakening) groups which began fighting al-Qaida militants and within a year the province became the safest in Iraq.

U.S. Marine General James Conway said that Iraqi forces were ready to take over responsibility as “the change in the Al-Anbar province is real and perceptible.”

The U.S. military currently has 28,000 soldiers in Anbar, down from 37,000 in February, according to U.S. Army figures, while the number of Iraqi soldiers and police has grown to 37,000 from just 5,000 three years ago.

The military had planned to hand over Anbar on June 28 but canceled the previous day—citing a sandstorm as the reason.

Local chiefs said the delay was due to Sunni political infighting between Sahwa and the leading Sunni political group Islamic Party.

Monday’s handover is expected to help U.S. military cut its overall troop level in Iraq at a time when there is growing pressure to beef up forces in Afghanistan, where the level of violence is higher.

About 144,000 U.S. soldiers are currently deployed in Iraq, but those numbers could decrease in coming months.

General David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, has said he will decide in the coming days or weeks whether to continue withdrawing troops, and at what pace.

Wire reports