BAGHDAD — Officials said the Civilian Police Assistance Training Team has
completed 99 percent of its mission to train 188,000 security forces.
Eighty-two percent of those forces have been equipped.
Since September 2004, 4,000 Iraqi policemen have been killed, and about
8,000 injured, said Maj. Gen. Joseph Peterson, commander of the Civilian
Police Assistance Training Team in Iraq. He said this has not significantly hampered
recruitment.
"If you put together this equation, where we have a more functional
ministry that is capable and then capable forces that we are continuing to
grow, continuing to mentor, teach and coach down in their police stations," Peterson
said.
Meanwhile, Iraq plans to continue its crackdown on corrupt police
units.
Officials said several Iraqi police units deemed as having ties with
militias could be disbanded. They cited the decommissioning of the Iraqi
Police's 8th Brigade last week, the first such move since the fall of the
Saddam Hussein regime in 2003.
"I really believe that the decision to withdraw the 8th Brigade from
their current mission in Baghdad and to put them in a training status is
very, very positive," Peterson said on Oct. 6. "And it will grow
confidence, not only in the [Interior Ministry], but also its forces."
[On Saturday, at least 30 people were killed in Tal Afar when a suicide
truck bomber rammed an Iraq Army post. Many of the casualties were civilians
in the second such attack in the city since Oct. 5.]
Officials said the U.S. military and Interior Ministry have cooperated
in the effort to assess Iraq's police brigades. They said the assessment was
part of a reform program to improve professionalism and confidence within
the national police.
On Oct. 3, the ministry said the 8th Brigade, 2nd National Police had
been recalled. Officials said the brigade, which would undergo intensive
training in anti-militia operations, was decommissioned because of poor
performance and alleged complicity with militias.
"That is an issue, and the minister, again, is focused on that and
trying to weed out any individuals that can still be aligned with militias
and sectarian violence," Peterson said.
Peterson said the decision to decomission the 8th Brigade stemmed from
an inspection in August. He said the brigade displayed poor performance in
Baghdad during Operation Together Forward, meant to quell Al Qaida and
sectarian violence.
Officials said the brigade commander has been dismissed and the
commander of the 2nd Battalion was arrested. The commander was charged with
complicity in the raid of a Baghdad meat processing factory where more than
20 individuals were abducted, seven of them later found killed.
The Iraqi police have been undergoing the second phase of a national
police assessment as part of an effort to improve the police. Officials said
this consisted of three weeks of transformational training, civil police
skills
and small-unit level tasks.
