BAGHDAD — The U.S. military has replaced Iraqi troops in
the effort to restore order to the nation's largest province.
Officials said the U.S.-led coalition has employed its own forces to
combat Al Qaida and Saddam Hussein loyalists in Anbar.
Officials said training Iraqi soldiers in Anbar has been difficult amid
the Al Qaida offensive in the province, Middle East Newsline reported. They reported widespread defections
of Iraqi troops, particularly when they left with their paycheck on their
monthly 10-day leave.
"This will be a short-term [U.S.] deployment, which, in the long term we
hope will contribute more to the security and stability in that area,"
coalition spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said.
In late May, U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, ordered 1,500
American troops from neighboring Kuwait for deployment in Anbar. Officials
said Casey's order came amid a sharp increase in Al Qaida strikes against
pro-U.S. tribes in the province, Middle East Newsline reported.
"Commanders in the field will continue to re-evaluate the status [in
Anbar province], and at which time they're no longer needed, we'll move
those forces back to Kuwait," Caldwell told a briefing on June 1.
Caldwell said Iraqi forces were demonstrating resilience. He said that
over the past week, Iraqi security forces conducted nearly 40 percent of
military operations nationwide, including the capture of a key Al Qaida
financier.
At the same time, the Iraqi Interior Ministry has reported the training
and equipping of 148,000 police and security officers. Last week, 1,400
police recruits graduated, with another 8,000 in training.
But Iraqi forces have performed poorly in Anbar as well as the provinces
of Basra, Diyala and Salah Eddin. Officials said the coalition has fallen
behind schedule in the effort to recruit and train Sunnis in Anbar for army
and police service.
As a result, the U.S. military has increasingly assumed security
operations in much of the Sunni Triangle. Officials said the military hopes
to quickly train Iraq Army troops to ease the burden on the coalition in
Anbar, by far the largest province in the country.
"Coalition forces in this area are still doing a lot of combat
operations," Lt. Col. Thomas Graves, commander of U.S. forces in Hit, said.
"But those [operations] are done with the idea that they will buy us
breathing space, and give us time to train the Iraqi army."
Hit, located west of the Anbar capital of Ramadi, has been regarded as a
key Al Qaida stronghold. The U.S. military has avoided retaining troops in
the city.
"Without the Iraqis, you are obviously limited to the number of American
patrols you generate," Graves, commander of the 1st Battalion, 36th Infantry
Regiment, said. "Our ability to fight this fight is dependent on our ability
to get out and be on the ground everywhere to do everything."
As a result, U.S. training in Hit has been limited to individual Iraqi
soldiers as well as squad levels. Graves said training would move to the
platoon level.
"We're doing it incrementally," Graves said. "We are building combat
power to better manage the battle space."
