BAGHDAD — The U.S. military has reported a major decline in attacks
on Iraqi vital facilities.
Officials said attacks against Iraq's vital infrastructure have
decreased by 60 percent over the last three months. They said the reduction
reflected the development and capabilities of Iraqi security forces.
On April 13, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition,
said Iraqi security forces have successfully protected vital infrastructure
sites. Lynch said Iraq's military and security forces comprise 250,000
trained and equipped Iraqi personnel, Middle East Newsline reported.
"We're taking the fight to the enemy specifically in Baghdad with the
presence we have on the ground," Lynch said.
[On Monday, Sunni insurgents attacked the government headquarters in
Ramadi, the capital of the Anbar province. U.S. Marines were said to have
repelled the insurgents, who included suicide car bombers.]
Iraq has been operating the Facility Protection Service, with a reported
force of 150,000 people and assigned to guard official buildings, power
stations and other sites. On April 12, Interior Minister Bayan Jabr said the
force was not under his control and could be under the influence of the
Iraqi insurgency.
Lynch, who did not discuss FPS, said insurgency attacks in the Anbar
province have decreased from an average of 27 per day in October 2005 to
about 18 a day in April. He said
that patrols in Baghdad have risen from 12,000 in February to 20,000 in
March.
[On Monday, U.S. troops helped defend Iraqi security forces from a Sunni
insurgency strike in Baghdad. The battle, which lasted about seven hours,
was launched by 50 insurgents.]
On April 14, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld contrasted Iraq's
military to its security forces. In an interview with Al Arabiya television,
Rumsfeld said the U.S. military has not embedded trainers in the Iraqi
Interior Ministry forces, whom he deemed significantly inferior to the Iraq
Army.
"The Ministry of Defense forces have been performing very well,"
Rumsfeld said. "We have our people embedded with them. The Ministry of
Interior security forces, the police, have a different pattern. They're
recruited locally. We were not training them. We have not had people
embedded with them, and we have less visibility. They're at least a year or
two behind the Ministry of Defense forces."
