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Friday, April 17, 2009

As withdrawal deadline looms, chaos in Mosul, low oil prices may require U.S. forces to remain

BAGHDAD — The U.S. military is prepared to remain in the capital of the Nineveh province during a spike in Al Qaida attacks.   

Officials said that without an Iraqi decision, thousands of U.S. soldiers would leave Mosul by July.

"We are conducting an assessment right now with our Iraqi counterparts to determine what the way ahead is for security in Mosul," Col. Gary Volesky, commander of the U.S. Army's 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, said. "If the Iraqi government wants us to stay, we will stay."

[On April 16, at least 16 Iraqis were said to have been killed and more than 60 were injured when a suicide bomber dressed as a soldier blew himself up in a military base in Habaniya, Middle East Newsline reported. Later, the Defense Ministry said the bomber was the only casualty in the attack, in which 38 others were injured, Middle East Newsline reported.]

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In an April 14 briefing, Volesky disclosed challenges in honoring the U.S. troop withdrawal agreement with Baghdad. The colonel acknowledged an insufficient number of Iraqi security forces in the province amid a shrinking Interior Ministry budget, exacerbated by low oil prices.

The Interior Ministry has deployed an elite unit to help battle Al Qaida around Mosul. The Mosul Special Weapons and Tactics, or SWAT, team has been working with U.S. Army advisers to identify and capture Al Qaida operatives. On April 8, the SWAT team arrested two suspects linked to IED attacks.

Officials said the Iraq Army has taken the lead in the majority of operations around Mosul. But they acknowledged that security forces lack often the most basic of equipment.

In April 2009, an Iraqi night police operation was suspended when officers couldn't find flashlights. In the end, Iraqi businessmen were pressed by U.S. officers to donate 36 flashlights.

"They need to have the bare necessities, obviously weapons and ammunition," Sgt. Glen MacDonald, a U.S. military police platoon leader who mentors the Iraqi police, said. "If they are supposed to be out at night, they're going to need flashlights."

Officials said many Iraqi security units remained unable to lead operations around Mosul. They acknowledged that in many cases U.S. forces were left responsible for missions, accompanied by a smattering of Iraqi police officers.

A key problem, officials said, was a shortage of Iraqi police in Nineveh. They said the U.S. military has set a requirement for another 5,300 police in the province.

"Right now, we've asked for about 5,300 Iraqi policemen to come in to start to get that police presence in the city of Mosul," Volesky said. "That's how we start to get to a return to normalcy."

The need for additional Iraqi security manpower reflected the continuing chaos in the Interior Ministry. Officials said more than 20 percent of the 25,000 Iraqi police on the payroll in Nineveh simply don't exist. They said 4,000 of the officers listed have either died or fled.

With insufficient manpower, Al Qaida has sustained mass-casualty strikes throughout Nineveh. In March, nearly 100 people were killed in a spate of suicide car bombings aimed mostly at Iraqi police and army. At least six U.S. soldiers were also killed over the last two weeks.

"I believe that Al Qaida still is here," Volesky said. "That's who's doing these big SVBIEDs."

Officials said a similar assessment of Iraqi security capabilities was being conducted in the Baghdad area. They said senior commanders were urging Al Maliki to order an extension of U.S. troop deployment beyond July.

"I know that I'm collecting that data right now, working with my Iraqi security forces, and it'll get forwarded up to our higher headquarters in the next few weeks," Volesky said. "I don't have that date. I just know, from my brigade perspective, we're collecting that data and getting feedback from our Iraqi counterparts right now."

But officials acknowledged that the Interior Ministry was unlikely to hire the required level of police in Mosul. They said the ministry, like the rest of the government, has been forced to significantly reduce its budget amid the sharp drop in oil prices over the last year.

"The oil prices have gone down and so there have been some budget issues," Volesky said.



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