URGENT / Iraq’s Anbar Province to announce itself independent “Region” next Sunday

ANBAR / IraqiNews.com: West Iraq’s Anbar Province‘s Council has stressed on Wednesday its intention to announce itself an independent “Region” next Sunday, following the Council’s 16 members agreement, its Member, Muzhir Hassan told IraqiNews.com news agency. “Anbar Council has gathered signatures of 16 of its members to announce Anbar Province as an independent Region next Sunday,” Hassan said, adding that “the final announcement would be based on the legal and constitutional principles, that would be taken in a referendum of two-thirds of the Province’s inhabitants.” He said that “the will for the announcement of the Province as a Region had followed a long suffering of the Province by the Central Government for the Councils of the Provinces.” The past few weeks have witnessed demands by several Iraqi provinces to announce themselves as independent “Regions,” most outstanding of which had been the announcement by Salahal-Din Province, as well as Ninewa, which had also expressed such wish, following demands by those provinces, in protest for what they said had been “margining, detentions and erradication measures that covered dozens of their citizens.” 765