U.S. forces pull out of town in Sunni Triangle
Tuesday June 01, 2004
KHALIDYAH, Iraq (AP) Thousands of Iraqis cheered and threw stones Tuesday as U.S. Marines handed over positions in this tense Sunni Triangle town to an Iraqi civil defense force.
The Iraqi Civil Defense Corps took over in Khaldiyah, 50 miles northwest of Baghdad, under an agreement with local clerics, said Lt. Col. Hammad Shahir Sarhan of the Iraqi forces.
Sarhan said his division flew the Iraqi flag after U.S. troops moved to their main base in Habbaniyah. People swept into the streets to rejoice, throwing stones as the Marines passed.
The Sunni Triangle, a largely Sunni Muslim area that formed a core of support for Saddam Hussein's former regime, stretches to the north and west of Baghdad, the capital, and is part of the western Anbar province.
The 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, with about 25,000 Marines in Iraq, is responsible for Anbar province, a vast arid expanse stretching to the borders with Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria. It includes the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah, where resistance to the U.S. occupation has been most fierce.
Nearly monthlong fighting in April, triggered by the April 5 mutilation and massacres of four U.S. civilian contractors, claimed the lives of 10 Marines and hundreds of Iraqis. |
