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Recruits go out to retake control
THE first batch of Iraq's newly trained troops are taking Australian skills into battle on the streets of Baghdad this week. Up to 900 Iraqi soldiers have been posted to Sadr City, the stronghold of Islamic leader Moqtada al-Sadr. All are recruits from the Australian-run Camp Ur training centre close to the Australian base at Tallil, in the country's southeast. Sadr City is a focus of insurgent violence and the Iraqi troops are going in hard under the plan of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Government to regain control of the capital. At Camp Ur Recruit Training Centre, another group of 800 fresh-faced recruits to what is one of the most dangerous jobs on earth this week joined the course run by the Australian Army Training Team, Iraq. Most of them come from poor families and about 30 per cent are members of the former Iraqi Army under Saddam Hussein. The head of the team, Lt-Col Peter Power from Canberra, said the aim was to push out well-trained troops to fill the new Iraqi divisions under the Prime Minister's "30K Plan" to boost his army by 30,000 men. The Diggers are not teaching them how to use a gun, but rather leadership at the lower level and a systems approach to training as well as discipline. During the Herald Sun's visit to the camp last week, several recruits were being sacked for breaching the code. Sgt John "Gronk" Camiller from the 1st Battalion, based in Townsville, is at the pointy end of the training effort. A bear of a man from Beaconsfield, Tasmania, Sgt Camiller said the Iraqi instructors were professional and mostly ex-regime, but had to be constantly encouraged. "We love getting in among them: it is great," he said. "It will take a lot more to get these guys off the ground." Cpl Ben Weston from the 1st Combat Support Battalion in Darwin -- formerly of Tarcutta, NSW -- has been in the army for seven years and finds his training role very rewarding. "Hopefully they will pick it up and will have a better army as a result," he said. "It is slow but we are definitely winning." Posted by: Fred 2007-02-27 |
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