One year ago the media called Al-Anbar Province in Iraq a “lost cause.”
Today, 30% of displaced residents have returned to the province because of the great improvements in the security situation.
Residents shop for clothes and shoes in Baghdad’s Karrada commercial district December 8, 2007. Picture taken December 8, 2007. To match story IRAQ/WITNESS.
(REUTERS/Ceerwan Aziz)
Aswat Al-Iraq reported:
Nearly 30% of the displaced families in the Sunni Anbar province returned home over the past two months, a spokesman for Anbar’s tribal awakening council said on Saturday.
“Many displaced families returned to their homes in the cities of Ramadi, Falluja, Hit, Haditha, and Aana over the past two months because of the improvements in the security situation,” Sheikh Falih Abu Risha told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).
“Efforts are underway to provide all returnees with their needs and ensure a normal life for them,” Abu Risha indicated, calling on those still displaced to return to their cities of origin in the province.
The awakening councils are anti-Qaeda fighters working in coordination with the Multi-National Force (MNF) and the Iraqi government.
Several other families in Baghdad protested the government on Sunday for a safe return to their homes in the al-Huriiya city and al-Adl neighborhoods of Baghdad.
Related… The BBC reported that Basra Province in southern Iraq will be turned over to the Iraqi democracy within the next two weeks.
