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Thursday, June 21, 2007

U.S. commander acknowledges tensions with Iraqi military

BAGHDAD — U.S. military sources said U.S. officers have expressed resentment over the lack of reliability and independence of Iraq's military and police during the counter-insurgency mission in Baghdad.

"The places where the Iraqi security forces are less developed and less ready to do things on their own are the places that are the most heavily contested," Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, the outgoing commander of Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq, said.

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Despite increased U.S. funding and efforts, the Iraqi security forces have fallen way short of development and staffing goals, the sources said.

[On Thursday, Sunni insurgents shelled the Iraqi parliament in Baghdad. At least seven mortars landed in the Green Zone, which contains parliament as well as Western embassies.]

Dempsey, who for years trained Iraq's military and police, acknowledged that his officers have been frustrated over what they deemed insufficient progress by the security forces. The U.S. general, who completed his last tour in Iraq in early June, said American officers had expected that the Iraq Army and police would become more capable.

"They are frustrated that Iraqi security forces are not further along and not fully prepared to address their own security requirements," Dempsey said in a June 1 briefing.

The frustration was said to be greatest among U.S. Army battalion and company commanders in Anbar, Baghdad and Diyala. These officers have maintained that numerous Iraqi units remain undermanned and unreliable in the war against Al Qaida in Baghdad.

"We tend to find they [Iraqi officers] want responsibility," Dempsey said. "They perhaps don't completely understand the breadth and scope and depth of the responsibility."

The sources said the undermanning of units has severely strained the Iraq Army. They said Iraqi soldiers remain in combat for long periods without rest or training.

"We face a summer of hard fighting," U.S. military spokesman Rear Adm. Mark Fox said on Wednesday.

Another element of U.S. frustration was the lack of a professional Iraqi army and police officer corps. The sources said the recruitment of officers who served under the former Saddam Hussein regime has not resolved the shortage.

"Right now it takes us nine months to grow a brand new second lieutenant," Dempsey said. "We have four military academies. We produce about 2,400 brand new lieutenants every year in a nine-month curriculum."

Dempsey said Iraqi police development has fallen way behind that of the army. Despite recruitment efforts, he said, 85 percent of the police force was composed of Shi'ites.

"We're almost to the point where the ministry sees itself responsible for the well-being of the soldiers, and we're almost to the point where the soldiers believe that the ministry is loyal to them," Dempsey said. "And I think when you ask me, where is the tipping point, I think that's the tipping point, in my line of work. I think by the end of the year we will be there."

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