The Interior Ministry held a three-day recruiting drive last week meant to bolster the police presence in the Iraqi capital. The campaign focused on mobilizing members of Sunni tribes in Baghdad.

"The additional police presence in the area will allow us to focus our soldiers more on key insurgent leaders and individual insurgent cells," U.S. Army Lt. Col. Peter Andrysiak, deputy commander of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, said.

"The large turn out was not entirely unexpected," Andrysiak said. "We have been working with reconcilable tribal leaders and the government of Iraq to make this happen."

Officials said the Interior Ministry plans to select 1,700 candidates to serve in the Baghdad police force. They said training would begin around August 2007.

Until 2007, the huge majority of Iraqi police in Baghdad was composed of Shi'ites. Some of the Shi'ite officers participated in death squads that conducted nightly killings throughout Sunni neighborhoods in the city.

"This recruitment drive is a success because the tribes in this area want to reconcile their differences with the coalition and the Iraqi government and participate in the legitimate legal process," Andrysiak said.