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| Iraq |
| Iraqi security forces reach 200,000 |
| 2005-10-12 |
| BAGHDAD, Iraq – The effort to train, equip and mentor Iraq’s security forces hit a milestone recently, with the number of men and women serving in uniform stretching past 200,000. Currently the Iraqi Ministry of Interior has 106,112 personnel serving as part of security forces. The Ministry of Defense has 93,959 service members in the military. Reaching this landmark is especially significant given that Iraq’s military and police forces will be taking the lead in providing security for the Oct. 15 referendum, officials said. There are now more than 60,000 additional Iraqi security forces available than there were for the highly-successful January election held earlier this year. Since the effort to rebuild the country’s forces began about 15 months ago, more than 115 special police and army combat battalions have been formed as well as regular police, border enforcement and highway patrol for the Ministry of Interior and motor transport regiments, Navy, Air Forces and numerous training organizations for the Ministry of Defense. The majority of those combat battalions are fighting side-by-side Coalition forces and several dozen are already taking the lead in operations, officials said. This would probably mean they also know how to call U. S. Army and Air Force avation assets to assist as necessary. Wonder if the MM are thinking about that much. |
| Posted by:Close Spomort1148 |
| #1 That is .86% of the total population in the sercurity forces or roughly one out of 100 at any age. When you consider a demographic with military aged males the number is consideribly larger. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2005-10-12 13:34 |