ANBAR UPDATE: “Iraq’s western province of Anbar, hotbed of the Sunni Arab insurgency for the first four years of the war, will be returned to Iraqi control in March, a senior U.S. general said Thursday. In a telephone interview from Iraq, Marine Maj. Gen. Walter E. Gaskin, commander of the roughly 35,000 Marine and Army forces in Anbar, said levels of violence have dropped so significantly—coupled with the growth and development of Iraqi security forces in the province—that Anbar is ready to be handed back to the Iraqis. . . . Thus far, nine of 18 Iraqi provinces have reverted to Iraqi control.” Halfway there: T.M. Lutas’s prediction from April is looking pretty good.

UPDATE: Rounding up the history.