As a shaky truce between US-led coalition forces and radical Shia insurgents was punctuated by gunmen who shot down a US attack helicopter over Baghdad killing two crew members, the coalition's commander signalled serious problems in handing over responsibility for security to the Iraqis. The US military leadership in Baghdad confirmed that Iraqi soldiers refused to help pacify Fallujah, revealing what he acknowledged were "significant challenges" in establishing reliable Iraqi security forces.
| Does "significant challenges" mean that they've fired them all and are starting over from scratch? I'd stick with Kurds, if I was in charge... |
Responding to reports that an Iraqi battalion, the new army trained by the coalition, had refused to fight in Fallujah, Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez, commander of coalition forces in Iraq, said: "This one specific instance did in fact uncover some significant challenges in some of the Iraqi security force structures. We knew that there were some risks that we were taking by standing up security forces quickly, and we also know that it's going to take us awhile to stand up reliable forces that can accept responsibility for both the internal and the external security of the country."
| Meaning they're no better than the Iraqi army we defeated... |
As the death toll of US soldiers has mounted, Bush administration officials have placed ever greater emphasis on the role of Iraqi police officers and civil defence units to take the target off American backs. But Gen Sanchez's comments reveal the difficulties that the US-led coalition is having in creating a reliable Iraqi security apparatus. There have, separately, been reports that Iraqi police officers have not only failed to prevent attacks by insurgents, but aided and abetted the attackers.
| Still a lot more work to do, even when all the Bad Guys have been killed. |
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