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June 20th,
2009 - US Hands Over Sadr City Base to Iraq |
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US Hands Over Sadr City Base
to Iraq By Mehdi Lebouachera Agence France Presse June 20, 2009 Baghdad - The US army handed
over a base in the Baghdad neighbourhood of Sadr City, once a bastion for
anti-US insurgents, to Iraqi forces on Saturday as the deadline nears for its
pullout from Iraq's cities. The transfer of the Joint
Security Station (JSS) comes barely more than a week before a June 30
deadline for US forces to pull out of Iraq's urban centres as required by a
security accord signed between Baghdad and Washington in November. "Today this base
returns to its true owner," said US Major General Daniel Bolger, the
commanding general of the 1st Cavalry Division. "This land has been
bought with a very high price - 136 US soldiers and 184 Iraqi soldiers shed
their blood to protect Sadr City (between January 2006 and present)." He added: "We Americans
did not give you this place - you have earned it, paid with Iraqi blood,
sweat and tears." A JSS is a small urban
military base in which US and Iraqi soldiers work together, which operates
under an Iraqi flag, and from which US and Iraqi troops carry out joint
patrols. In the aftermath of the 2003
US-led invasion of Iraq, American forces were welcomed in Sadr City, a
sprawling, predominantly Shiite neighbourhood in northeastern Baghdad that is
home to around 1.3 million people. But soon after, it became a
base for radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose Mahdi Army militia was
repeatedly accused of sectarian violence against Sunnis and attacks against
US forces before it was routed by US-backed Iraqi forces in March, April and
May 2008. "The activities of the
enemy were much higher in the past years and as the enemy activity has
dropped and the Iraqi Army has gone stronger, and the Iraqi people have grown
more secure, it's a good time for the United States to step back and to take more
of a supporting role," Bolger said. Saturday's handover marked
the third base in Sadr City previously held by the Americans that had been
transferred to Iraqi control this month, with a fourth and final handover to
occur on June 29. "US troops will continue
to provide support our Iraqi security partners, as requested, under the
articles of the Security Agreement," Master Sergeant Nicholas Conner
told AFP earlier. Meanwhile, some Iraqis
acknowledged that more work needed to be done in the area. "The situation is not
perfect, outlaws are trying to commit crimes," said local cleric, Sheikh
Qasim al-Qureshi. "But I hope that the
area will remain secure after the departure of American troops." Copyright © 2009 AFP. External link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jFnJNo9qNe1-fguBFcYDzvv7mmQQ |