- WASHINGTON (MENL) -- Iraq's
security forces, ordered to prepare for an offensive against the Mahdi
Army in Najaf, have been plagued by a desertion rate that exceeded 80 percent.
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- A U.S. report warned that Iraqi Interior Ministry troops
remain unprepared to fight Shi'ite or Sunni insurgents and could not be
deemed reliable. The report, published before the current showdown in Najaf,
said the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, renamed the Iraqi National Guard, has
not been trained to fight insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades
and heavy weapons.
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- "Effective Iraqi security forces are critical for
transitioning security responsibilities to Iraq," the Government Accounting
Office, the investigative arm of the Congress, said in a report. "However,
Iraqi security forces proved unready to take over security responsibilities
from the multinational force, as demonstrated by their collapse during
April 2004."
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- The United States was said to have spent $1.2 billion
in developing Iraq's security forces, which now number around 220,000.
The Iraqi units include the military, police and Interior Ministry forces.
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- http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2004/august/08_22_2.html
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