UN Security Council
2006

expands. From the experience of the past two and a half years, it was established that the Iraqi security forces, which operated under the command of the Iraqi Government, had acquired new experiences and responsibilities and had grown in size, experience and capacity, demonstrated by their increased ability to assume full responsibility in the fields of security and defence. We started to reap the fruits of success when our forces assumed responsibility for security in the governorates of Al Muthanna and Dhi Qar. In September 2006, the Ministry of Defence assumed the operational command and control of the ground, naval and air force commands. It also assumed operational command and control over two military divisions, indicating an increase in the ability of the Iraqi Army to assume the leadership in providing security to the Iraqi people. The Iraqi Government is also relentlessly working on building the necessary administrative and logistics system to make our Iraqi forces self-sufficient. It is the intention of the Iraqi Government to continue increasing the number