Still, the U.S. military has determined that the Iraq Army continued to
improve. Officials said the Army would still need U.S. or other foreign help
by the time the American withdrawal from Iraq was scheduled for completion
in late 2011.
"I've been here multiple tours and this is my first chance to work in
such close proximity to them," Spc. Thomas Terry said. "I'm looking around,
and I'm seeing discipline that I didn't see years ago when I was here."
On May 11, Iraq Army cadets concluded a U.S. training course in mortars.
On the insistence of the Iraqis, the mortars fired were 120mm rounds
produced in Serbia.
"They do all of their own training," U.S. Army Staff Sgt. David Daley,
an adviser to the Iraqis, said. "All we do is oversee and advise."
Daley said the Iraqis declined to use U.S. weapons during the training
course at a range southwest of Mamhudiya. He said the Army has become
proficient with Russian and Serbian weaponry.
U.S. advisers also offered Iraqi cadets training in American-origin
artillery batteries. The Iraqis were said to have declined.