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US Rushes To Deploy Iraqis
news.com.au
10-30-3


WASHINGTON (AFP) -- US commanders have stepped up deployment of Iraqi security forces after a spate of attacks and suicide bombings, fielding more than 100,000 of them, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said today.
 
Rumsfeld said congressional approval of more than $US18 billion in supplemental funds for Iraq's reconstruction would help speed the process.
 
"They've got a push on all of those activities: the army, the police, the site protection people, the border patrol, the civil defence people, as well as counter-terrorism people," Rumsfeld told reporters in Washington.
 
Rumsfeld said some Iraqi police were being fielded with less than the minimum eight-week training with the understanding that they would finish their training later.
 
Rumsfeld said the number of Iraqis deployed so far in the various security forces had climbed to more than 100,000, adding that their number will soon surpass the 130,000 US troops in the country.
 
That represents a jump of about 40,000 in less than a month, according to past figures Rumsfeld has cited in past interviews or press conferences.
 
Civil defence units and a guard force to protect infastructure around the country have grown the fastest because they require less training than either the army or the police, a senior defence official said.
 
The race to field Iraqi security forces was launched late last summer amid growing criticism here that the Pentagon had failed to deploy enough US troops to pacify the country.
 
But coordinated suicide bombings on Monday targeting the Baghdad offices of the International Red Cross and Iraqi police stations have highlighted the urgency of the situation.
 
President George W. Bush had told the Pentagon to revamp and accelerate their plans to put Iraqis on the streets of Baghdad and other places where US forces have come under attack, the New York Times reported.
 
"I mean, you don't get from zero to 100,000-plus Iraqis involved just by sitting around thinking about it," Rumsfeld told reporters.
 
"You add money. You set higher goals. You increase the number of Iraqis who are helping you doing the recruiting. You increase the number of countries who assist you with the training. And you adjust your techniques as to where you put your emphasis within those five or six categories," he said.
 
Copyright 2003 News Limited.
 
http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,7724427%255E1702,00.html


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