RAMADI, Iraq, Aug 31, 2008 (AFP) - Iraqi and US forces were on alert on Sunday in the western Sunni province of Anbar ahead of the transfer of security in the region from the American military to Baghdad.
"Our forces are ready to take the security responsibility tomorrow (Monday)," Majid al-Assafi, the new police chief of Anbar, told AFP.
"They are controlling the situation. Our troops are on alert to avert any failure of the transfer," he said.
Anbar, once one of the most dangerous places in Iraq, will be the first predominantly Sunni Arab province to be transferred to the Iraqis by the US military. It will also be the 11th of Iraq's 18 provinces to be handed over.
An AFP correspondent reported that the US military had stepped up patrols on the main streets of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar, a former battleground turned symbol of stability in Iraq.
Local markets in Ramadi were open as shoppers bought their wares and the city was quiet, the correspondent said.
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 resident from Ramadi, was sceptical about the readiness of the Iraqi forces.
"Our forces are not ready to take the responsibility of the situation. I am sorry to say, but there is lot of corruption in our security forces," he told AFP.
Sunni Arabs in Anbar were the first to turn against US forces after the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime by US-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 theatre 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-Qaeda.
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