Al-Muthanna province is in the south of Iraq, bordering Saudi Arabia. Its capital is Samawah. Prior to 1976, it was part of the Diwaniya province, which also included present day An-Najaf and al-Qadisiyah provinces.

Al-Muthanna is 32,150 square miles, about the size of West Virginia. It has a population of about 550,000. At least 97 percent of the population is Shiite Muslim and the remainder are almost entirely Sunni Muslim, with a few Christians.

Al-Muthanna also includes the ancient Sumerian ruin of Uruk, which is possibly the source of the name Iraq.

On July 13, 2006, British, Australian and Japanese forces handed over security responsibility for Muthanna province to Iraqi forces in the first such transfer of an entire province. Read Now (MNF-I News Archive)

Until transition to Provincial Iraqi Control, the province was home to a British/Australian Task Force at Camp Smitty near Samawah.  Also in the province was the Japanese Infrastructure Reconstruction Support Group, who conducted humanitarian and reconstruction work.

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