Officials said the training and exercise was arranged by the U.S. military's Operational Detachment Alpha 7236 to cap two months of training. They said this marked the first such Iraqi exercise with the U.S. military.

"In six years of training with [American] Special Forces, we have never done training like we did today," the unidentified commander of the Scout Company, 1st Battalion, 32nd Brigade, 8th Iraqi Army Division, said.

The commander said the training was designed to enhance and update skills in pursuing insurgents. The Scouts have been targeting high-value insurgents and criminals in Iraq.

"They did fairly well," a U.S. special operations adviser said. "This is what we built up to with two months of training, and I'm very pleased. They have improved a million times over."

Officials said the U.S. military has sought to develop an Iraqi special operations capability to defeat Iranian-trained Shi'ite insurgents. The Scouts have been operating in the Shi'ite province of Kut and Wasit, said to contain a significant presence of such Iranian-backed militias as the Mahdi Army and Special Groups.

The officers in the Iraqi Scouts have sought to conceal their identities. The platoon commander and three of his soldiers were assassinated recently and the new chief has received death threats.

"They do large operations, and no one ever knows about them," a U.S. officer said. "They're quiet professionals. They don't need credit; they just want to accomplish the mission."

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