BAGHDAD — Iraq has doubled the size of its trained police force over
the last six months while preparing to replace thousands of incompetent
officers.
Iraqi and U.S. officials said the accelerated training of the regular
police and special units has resulted in a more than 100 percent increase in
trained
Iraqi officers. They said many of those trained were former Iraqi officers
who proved unable to carry out operations or guard their facilities.
As of the second week of January, officials said, the Iraqi Police
Service contained more than 53,000 trained and equipped police officers. In
July 2004, the police contained 26,000 trained officers. Today, there are a
total of about 130,000 police officers.
Officials said that of the 27,000 police officers trained over the past
six months, 13,643 were former officers who underwent three-week transition
training. Another 13,314 were new recruits who underwent an eight-week
training course.
Many of the newly-trained police have been already been assigned to the
field. Officials said more than 37,000 additional
police have been on duty and would complete training over the next few
months.
At the same time, the Iraqi Interior Ministry has been reviewing the
performance of all levels of the police force. Officials said as many as
30,00 officers could lose their jobs because of corruption and poor
discipline.
"We now have a system in place where we are trying to remove officers if
the reason is good, including corruption or not reporting for duty," Col.
Adnan Saadi, a police spokesman, said. "There are thousands of them."
In the latest development, the police commander of the Diyala province,
Brig. Gen. Iyad Hussein Karkhi, has been dismissed because of incompetence.
Officials said Col. Adil Mulan was appointed to replace Karkhi, blamed for
deteriorating security in the province.
Police training has been taking place in both Jordan as well as five
academies in Iraq. Officials said Iraqi police academies would soon be
capable of producing nearly 4,000 new officers per month.
Officials said the Interior Ministry and the U.S. military have begun to
modify police training. They said the effort was meant to provide cadets
with counter-insurgency skills. About 700 soldiers from the U.S.-led
coalition train the Iraqi police.
So far, five provincial SWAT teams have completed training and two more
were currently being trained. Officials said 13 additional teams were
scheduled to be trained by July 2005. They said Iraq's National Emergency
Response Unit has become operational and its elements were conducting
missions in Baghdad, Faluja, and Mosul.
The Interior Ministry has also formed and deployed seven police commando
battalions. Officials said two other commando battalions were being trained
with additional units planned.
Officials said Iraqi police also included six Public Order battalions,
with six additional battalions planned. They said the
Iraq's Mechanized Police Brigade would begin operations over the next few
days and utilize Soviet-origin 50 BTR-94 wheeled armored vehicles.
The Interior Ministry has also launched its new border force. Officials
said Iraq's 1st Special Border Force Battalion has been operating along the
Syrian border while the 2nd Battalion would be operational in mid-February.
