Iraqi forces assume greater solo responsibilities, US general says
Iraq-USA, Politics, 7/16/2005

Iraqi military and police forces are providing security for increasingly larger swaths of the country and are commanding more respect daily, says a U.S. military officer with knowledge of their operations.

Army Major General Joseph Taluto, commander of the multinational division in the north-central part of the country, told reporters in Baghdad July 15 that Iraqi security forces "are already conducting over half of the operations that we do." The Iraqis are either integrated into coalition operations or carrying them out with minimal coalition support, he said, and "that's a huge accomplishment."

Taluto's responsibilities as commander of Task Force Liberty include the Iraqi cities of Balad, Kirkuk, Tikrit and Samarra. The 23,000 coalition and Iraqi soldiers assigned to the task force are focused on keeping the pressure on the insurgency. "Our work is protecting the process that will allow Iraqis to develop their new government and build their own sustainable security forces," he said.

Alston said he does not know of any area in Iraq that is available as an insurgent training camp. "We keep pressure on them every day. They are pushed and they move. So they are, I think, constantly shifting their presence, and as we get actionable intelligence, we bring our presence to them and... engage them," the briefing official said.

The insurgents are trying very hard to disrupt basic services in Iraq and derail the democratic process there, Alston said. "The people of Iraq," he said, "won't let democracy be stopped, though." The Iraqi Constitution is being drafted, a constitutional referendum will take place in October, followed by elections in December, the general added.

The Iraqi people want to end the terror and bring back security and stability into their lives, Alston said. "Our constant pressure on the insurgents, the continued progress of the Iraqi security forces and the reconstruction projects that are under way... will help them achieve those aims," he added.

On the subject of transferring ever-larger parts of the nation to Iraqi security forces, Alston said this process will continue to expand throughout the country over the summer. "It'll continue at the local... provincial... and, then, ultimately of course, when... we get closer to the end of our task," he said, "it will happen at the national level."

The general was asked to give "a general breakdown of the ethnic makeup of the Iraqi security forces in your area. And my follow-up question to that is, do you have enough Sunnis among the Iraqi security forces to be trusted to handle security in Sunni areas? In other words, avoiding a bloodbath by turning things over to Shi'a."

The general replied "The mix of our army forces kind of mirror the community that they work in. The majority of the Iraqi army forces in North-Central Iraq were formerly the ING. Those units were raised from areas -- community areas, like you would have a national guard. And a lot of that has maintained itself. But we have mixed throughout the force, even in -- if you're in a Sunni area, we will have some Shi'a soldiers in there because there are Shi'a that live in the area and they wanted to join the army, and they certainly can join the army. So we have a good mix of forces, but as you would expect, if you're in Salahuddin Province, which is 80 percent Sunni, most of the soldiers are Sunni Arabs; but there are Shi'a in there, and there would be some Kurdish. If you go over to the Kirkuk Province, you're probably going to see more Kurdish soldiers and you'll see Sunni Arab soldiers because the western part of Kirkuk Province is Sunni Arab. And so they kind of mirror the demographics of the area that they work in."

Asked "you said that the insurgency is about similar to where it was pre-election; the former regime elements and the Sunnis have fallen away, but the religious extremists have not grown. How can things be staying the same when half the insurgency has sort of dropped off and the other half has stayed the same? Can you give me a little better picture of what you think the contours and size of the insurgency is right now?" Taluto replied "I don't think I said that I thought the religious extremists had grown, I thought they had coalesced, meaning that there was more cooperation or passing of information between a variety of groups. So I want to clarify that. I think -- you know, I'm quantifying that for -- frankly, in the context of levels of attacks. While direct fire and indirect fire have been reduced in North-Central, we're seeing more suicide vehicle- borne IEDs of late. So there's some trade-off there. Of course the suicide vehicle-borne IEDs are mostly against innocent civilians, against soft targets -- Iraqi security forces, police and army soldiers in static positions. And so therefore, they're still trying to disrupt the process, they're still trying to intimidate people; they're trying to intimidate Iraqi security forces. These are the things that have been going on in North-Central Iraq for some time now. Of course, they failed to intimidate the people during the election time frame, and they're not doing it now. So in that aspect, I just think that we maintain pressure on the insurgency. I don't think it has grown. I don't know that I could say that it has been reduced significantly, because we still see these level of suicide attacks, but it doesn't mean it's done by a lot of people. It's hard to quantify."

Asked about more detail on Ansar al-Sunna and that "the coalition you see building between them and Zarqawi? And would you also talk about whether Iraqis calling in with tips are able to give information on those kinds of organizations, or are they more focused on the former regime elements, Sunni rejectionists?" He replied "As you know, Ansar al-Sunna has been around for some time. They're not new to the area. And they're, I think, trying to assert themselves, you know, to become more visible and to have a greater impact on what's going on. Our -- personally, we feel that they can't really get the kind of traction they need, so they're kind of riding in on the QJBR-IO, if you will, information- type train to give themselves more visibility.

"So I think there's a -- you know, we don't know to what level this coalescence is, frankly. How much they're really cooperating with each other. I wouldn't think it is a -- it's a great, you know, well-designed organization. I think there is contact and I think there's probably sharing of information and then possibly sharing of resources. So that's on that side of the house.

"The second part of you question was on the calls, and I'm glad you asked that question. We think that's very significant. As the May and June timeframe -- as the insurgency will do, it will spike from time to time. And it's always -- it is spiking in concert with some of that that's going on here in Iraq, because they need to try to, you know, negate or delegitimize what's happening.

"During that period of time, we saw the phone calls go up a great deal. You know, 150 percent increase in phone calls into these JCCs. And they take on all forms of information. And they're not just phone calls. I might add that we have walk-up tips where people come right up to not just their own security forces -- they come up to coalition forces. They do not normally -- they point out things that they see wrong, and it's hard to judge -- they're not in tune with religious extremists or Sunni Arab rejectionists. They see things that they don't like. For example, they point out caches -- almost eight out of the 10 caches we find now are pointed out to us by Iraqis. They'll point out, and have pointed out cars that look suspicious to them. They'll report cars that are parked, you know, on the side of the road or in a city that they don't like. You know, that car can be affiliated with a religious extremist group that's put it out there.So they just report what they see, and we're very heartened by that because, frankly, that is becoming more prevalent and the Iraqi security forces are taking care of more things from end to end. And I can give you an example of that very quickly.

"There was a vehicle-borne IED that was parked in Kirkuk in a very busy market area. Citizens saw the car parked. They thought it was strange. They reported it to the local police that are there in Kirkuk on the street. The police reacted to that, cordoned off the area, brought in their own EOD team, had the car inspected, and sure enough, it was rigged for explosion. They defused it, they got rid of the vehicle-borne IED, and they reported it out to their media. There wasn't one coalition soldier involved in that event, and all we did was monitor it. And that is happening more frequently."

The General said that " I would say that the insurgency in North-Central Iraq is at about a similar level to pre-election, but it has changed in its complexion. Our assessment is that many of the former regime or Sunni Arabs that were opposed to the new government and the new political process have fallen away. I think that has reduced. I think the religious extremists -- while they have not, in our view, in North-Central Iraq, grown -- they have coalesced a little bit more with national religious extremists like Ansar al-Sunnah, you know, getting involved with QJBR activities, and they are responsible for the spike in suicide bomb attacks in North-Central Iraq. Our attacks in direct fire and indirect fire have reduced over time. And going back to last year to this year, those types and forms of attack have been reduced significantly. And those are the attacks that some of the Iraqis -- Sunni Arab rejectionists or former regime elements were conducting. The suicide bomb, of course, is the weapon of choice now for all the purposes that you know."

The General said "In summary, Iraqis control and run their local and provincial governments in North-Central Iraq. Certainly we still provide security assistance where required, and that is to be expected. However, businesses are operating. Schools are open; children are receiving an education. And Iraqi security forces are providing internal security and are respected more every day. We know that our mission to defend their freedoms here is a vital part of defending our own freedoms."

Worth noting there have been reports, such as by the New York Times that quoted US soldiers who are training Iraqi soldiers of the poor quality of Iraqi soldiers and the slow progress being achieved in this regard.

Previous Stories:
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