The Iraqi army has declared that it gained control over the Jazira area of Khalidiya, which is halfway between Fallujah and Ramadi in Anbar province. With this gain, the army has acquired a strategic point that al-Qaeda has been using for years to maintain its presence and movement in a complex area that extends from Anbar to Salahuddin and Mosul in the north, and to Baghdad and Diyala in the east.
But maintaining control of Khalidiya — which lies on the Euphrates River and includes villages surrounded by agricultural and desert areas stretching south toward the western desert and north toward the Jazira desert in Salahuddin — is not an easy task. Even though al-Qaeda elements have left the area, this does not mean that the government presence there is secure.
