US general paints candid picture of Iraq army, police

BAGHDAD, June 11 (Reuters) Iraqi security forces should be in a position to take control of 14 of Iraq's 18 provinces by year's end, although they will not be ready to fight on their own for some time, a top US general said yesterday.

Giving a candid assessment of their capabilities, Lieutenant-General Martin Dempsey, in charge of US-led efforts to reconstruct Iraq's security forces over the past 22 months, also said there was a critical shortage of good senior officers.

Creating a new police force and army, disbanded after the US-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein in 2003, is a prerequisite for a US withdrawal. US soldiers though have voiced frustration at what they see as slow progress.

Dempsey's efforts to rebuild Iraq's security forces, which now comprise 154,000 soldiers and 194,000 policemen, have been dogged by accusations that the forces, especially the police, are beset by sectarianism, corruption and poor discipline.

''We have achieved a great deal together, together we must achieve a great deal more,'' Dempsey said, handing over command of the training mission to Lieutenant-General James Dubik.

The handover ceremony, held in an auditorium in Baghdad's heavily secured Green Zone, was attended by a phalanx of US generals along with senior officers and diplomats from other coalition forces and Iraqi ministers and generals.

Dempsey told reporters later that after a ''disastrous'' start, Iraqi troops were performing better in the US-backed security drive in Baghdad that aims to avert civil war.

Asked how ready Iraqi security forces were to take over from US forces, he said: ''Unanswerable in general and answerable when you talk about different parts of Iraq. I can't say they are all ready or they're not.

''Seven provinces are under Iraqi control, by the end of the year potentionally most of the others. I'm a little concerned about Baghdad, Diyala, Salahaddin, Anbar. Fourteen of the provinces could certainly be handed over (but) being completely self-reliant is a ways off.'' The four provinces singled out as problematic are where US forces are fighting hardest against al Qaeda and other Sunni and Shi'ite militant groups. Much of the fighting is focused on Baghdad, where the sectarian violence is worst.

Additional Iraqi troops have been drafted in from other regions to help the US military put more boots on the ground in the fight in Baghdad, but Dempsey said the first ''tranche'' of Iraqi soldiers had been ''frankly disastrous''.

''Not enough of them decided to deploy, they left more than half the unit behind. But we did not prep them very well. We asked them to go to Baghdad, but we didn't tell them why very well, we didn't tell them how long they would be there.'' Plans had since been put in place to address this.

While the army is viewed as more professional and less sectarian, the police, about 85 per cent Shi'ite, is viewed by many minority Sunni Arabs as little more than a Shi'ite militia.

As US and Iraqi officers lined up at the end of the ceremony to shake his hand, Dempsey gripped the arm of one police general and told him firmly: ''Get the image improved''.

Iraq's interior minister has relieved seven out of nine national police brigade commanders and 14 out of 24 battalion commanders since last August under a reform programme.

''Police have been a handful, but we can't give up on them, because for this country to call itself stable it needs to have civil security in place, not just martial law,'' Dempsey told reporters later.

Bemoaning Iraq's shortage of military leaders, he blamed Saddam Hussein for ''culling'' officers of quality and Iraq's successive wars for the problem.

Reuters SKB RS0834