14 August 2006
Majority of Iraqi Police Trained, Equipped, General Says
Iraqi army, police security forces, both national and local, called key to success
Washington -- Iraqi Interior Ministry forces have reached 92 percent of a planned strength of 188,000 troops, the commander of the coalition's Civilian Police Assistant Training Team says.
The Iraqi police included in that total are 90 percent trained and 83 percent equipped, according to Major General Joe Peterson. The National Police, which used to be called the Special Police, are 98 percent trained and 92 percent equipped, he continued. Peterson briefed along with Army Major General William Caldwell, spokesman for Multi-National Force - Iraq, from Baghdad, Iraq, August 14 via videoconference to the Pentagon.
Also included under the Interior Ministry are Department of Border Enforcement police, which are now 92 percent trained though just 56 percent equipped, Peterson said. He explained that the border police lag because resources have gone more to those forces in contested areas.
"[W]e estimate that all of this will be completed by December of this year [2006]," Peterson added. "So that's all on track."
In his opening remarks, General Caldwell said that the "Iraqi security forces are the key to the success in this country, both the Iraqi army and the police forces, both the national and the local. … that is a key ingredient … for the coalition forces to draw down their presence.”
However, Caldwell continued, the military and police components are not enough.
"It's going to take the commitment of the Iraqi government through governance, through economics and most importantly, the will and determination of the Iraqi people themselves," he said.
Caldwell noted that Baghdad needs long-term solutions, and that the extremists there will be defeated neither easily nor quickly.
"Challenges will ensue, but efforts will march forward block by block," he said.
According to Caldwell, what really matters is businesses reopening and staying open, refurbishing the stalls in the marketplace section by section, improving drainage, removing rubbish and allowing children on summer break outside to ride bicycles and play. (See related article.)
Caldwell began the briefing by noting a series of explosions that occurred August 13 on the Karrada peninsula at the Zaafaraniyah district. In spite of speculation that the cause was a car bomb, he said, a U.S. explosive ordnance disposal team examined the site and made a preliminary assessment that an initial natural gas explosion led to subsequent explosions.
Further investigation is ongoing, Caldwell said, but available evidence so far points to an internal gas explosion that set off a series of other explosions at that location.
The transcript and video of the briefing, as well as slides (PDF, 14 pages) used in the briefing, are available on the Web site of Multi-National Force - Iraq.
For further information, see Iraq Update.
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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