"They're getting ready to go home," another security source said. "They
still work with us, but the atmosphere has become much less intimate."
In some cases, the sources said, the Iraqi police were provided with
metal detectors that either didn't work or were useless against explosives.
They said Al Qaida has understood this and was targeting police checkpoints
around such cities as Baghdad, Baquba and Mosul.
[On April 28, the Iraqi Interior Ministry announced the capture of an
insurgency cell that conducted a series of car bombings in Baghdad in 2005.
The ministry did not say whether any of the cell members were involved in
the current Al Qaida offensive.]
Iraqi police and security forces lack armored vehicles to conduct
patrols in neighborhoods with a suspected Al Qaida presence, the sources
said. They also reported a shortage of night-vision equipment.
Other factors cited in the Al Qaida surge were the dismantling of the
Sunni-dominated Al Sahwa auxiliary police force and the release of thousands
of Sunni detainees. The sources said many of the Sunnis have been recruited
by Al Qaida.
The U.S. military was scheduled to leave Iraqi cities by June 30, a
deadline that has sparked increasing concern in the Iraqi security
forces. Officials said Iraq has agreed to consider allowing U.S. troops to
remain in Mosul as well as Baghdad for at least the rest of 2009.
"The general position of the Iraq Defense Ministry is to keep the
timings in the withdrawal pact that American troops withdraw from Iraqi
cities and not enter the cities unless they get Iraqi approval," Iraqi
Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed Al Askari said. "If we need the support
of American troops, we will recall them with Iraqi governmental approval."
