Iraq seeks “self-sufficiency” in military operations-Advisor

BABEL/IraqiNews.com: Iraq’s National Security advisor on Thursday said the Iraqi forces would conduct their counter-terrorism activities independently as U.S. forces put Iraqis in control of Babel province. “This is proof that our military forces have reached self-sufficiency, and can now be depended upon to preserve internal security,” national security adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie said at a ceremony in the provincial capital Hilla. “Security forces in Babel are under the comman of the governor, while about one million army, police and intelligence forces would work on fighting terrorism and glossing over sectarianism in the country,” he highlighted. Babel, named for its grand ruins of ancient Babylon, which on Thursday became the 12th of Iraq’s 18 provinces to be handed over to Iraqi control. “Iraqis will also take control of Wassit province, leaving just the capital Baghdad and four volatile Northern provinces still under U.S. command,” Rubaie noted. AM(S) 1