BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Coalition troops on Monday formally handed over security control of Iraq's Anbar province -- once the hub of the country's Sunni insurgency, to Iraqis on Monday. A U.S. soldier on patrol in Ramadi's market earlier this year. U.S. troops will remain in the province to support Iraqi forces. President George W. Bush described the transfer as a major victory against al-Qaeda extremists who once held sway in the area. "Today, Anbar is no longer lost to al Qaeda -- it is al Qaeda that lost Anbar," he said in a statement. Once dominated by Sunni insurgents, Anbar has been the scene of many attacks on U.S.-led troops in Iraq.
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Coalition troops hand over security control of Iraq's Anbar province to Iraqis
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Anbar was once the hub of the country's Sunni insurgency
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More than 25,000 U.S. troops serve in Anbar, west of Baghdad
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"And the fact that that has been able to be turned around, that the Iraqi citizens that live there want to stand up on their own, [that] they want to take control of the province on their own ... it's a major progress not only for @placeholder, but for all of Iraq."