Multi-National Corps Iraq Public Affairs

Courtesy Story

By Multi National Forces – West Public Affairs Office

HIT, Iraq – Cheers erupted as the American flag was ceremoniously lowered and replaced by an Iraqi flag.

The Iraqi flag raising was part of a ceremony Thursday, where the Iraqi security forces assumed responsibility of the city of Hit from Task Force 1st Battalion, 7th Marines.

The ceremony marked the largest demilitarization of an Anbar city to date, and included music, dancing and a fly over by an F/A-18 fighter jet.

"This is a significant and historic day, for just over a year ago, this city was being choked by the terrorists," said Lt. Col. Jeffrey Dill, the commanding officer of Task Force 1/7. "There is not a family within the Hit district that has not suffered in some way.

When others in Iraq and around the world had written Al Anbar off as 'lost' to the terrorists; the people, the brave members of the Hit Police Department and the Iraqi army said, 'Not yet, we are not done fighting for our freedom."'

After months of hard work, the city of Hit looks very different than it did a year ago.

"Today, Hit is a city of growth, a city of prosperity and a city where once again there is hope," said Dill.

The Task Force, from Twentynine Palms, Calif., will remain outside of the city to assist the ISF if needed, but the responsibility of keeping the area safe is now on the shoulders of the ISF.

"This town is whole again," said Mamoun Sami Rasheed, governor of Anbar. "I ask the Iraqi police and Iraqi army to be honest. It's the peoples' rights; they own their own lives."

All across the western province of Anbar, coalition forces are passing more responsibilities on to the ISF. The ISF recently conducted their first operation on their own in Haditha City. Marines in Haditha City will soon follow in the footsteps of 1st Bn., 7th Marines, when they move outside of the city limits in the next few months. A similar ceremony occurred last year in Baghdad0, which like Haditha City and Hit is in the Euphrates River Valley.

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