Iraq forces much better but not there yet - US

Kut: Iraq faces a major test next year when its unseasoned forces cast off US military primacy to defend a fragile peace in a country that only recently stood at the brink of sectarian civil war.

Iraqi forces, which have grown seven-fold since 2003, are seen as far more professional and prepared than they once were.

"We're now ready to take over everything, in terms of security," said Hussain Azab, an Iraqi Army major who oversees the Al Hurriya district of Baghdad. "I can't see any reason why we can't patrol the streets by ourselves now."

But many Iraqi officials acknowledge that inadequate equipment, incomplete training and a host of other problems mean they are not yet ready to ensure Iraq does not slide back into the horrific violence that followed the 2003 US-led invasion.

The test for Iraqi forces, who now number around 610,000, occurs as US troops curtail their combat activities under a bilateral security pact that takes effect on January 1, 2009.

US raids and other operations will require Iraqi permission, and US soldiers will need arrest warrants for searches and detentions.

US troops are supposed to be confined to training and support roles in Iraqi cities by the middle of next year, and all must be out of the country by the end of 2011.

Officials from the United States, which has spent some $20 billion (Dh73.4 billion) on Iraq's security forces and justice system since it ousted Saddam Hussain in 2003, describe Iraqi forces in terms that parents reserve for less-than-exceptional children.

"Much better, but not there yet", or "making headway", are common refrains. In some areas, the best US officials hope for in the short run is what they call "Iraqi good enough".

In a recent basic training class in Kut, south of Baghdad, police recruits with close-shorn heads and blue uniforms sat packed in a small classroom as their instructor drilled them on how to avoid becoming yet another police killed on duty: don't eat every day at the same place; vary your route to work. It is part of a four-week basic training course for police recruits at the centre that lacks proper instructors and basics like fuel and ammunition.

During a visit from Major-General Mike Milano, a senior US advisor to Interior Minister Jawad Al-Bolani, Iraqi police trotted out a homemade RPG they use to train recruits - their proof they are making do with enough support from Baghdad.

On Iraqi streets, a frequent sight are skinny Iraqi policemen, holding ageing weapons and protected at best by flimsy and ill-fitting bullet-proof vests.

They are a sharp contrast to US soldiers, rumbling by in state-of-the-art armoured vehicles, draped with sophisticated body armour and night-vision goggles.

Iraqi security entities have long been beset by political intrigue, sectarian rivalries, and corruption. In late 2007, things were so bad that an independent US commission recommended dissolving the entire National Police.

The situation has improved, but US officials say Saddam's fear-infested rule left a corrosive legacy, including a slow-moving bureaucracy, an inability to spend budgeted funds and decision-making concentrated at the top.

If you made a wrong decision under Saddam "you'd be killed or your hand would be cut off," said Lieutenant General Frank Helmick, who heads US and Nato efforts to train Iraqi forces.

Still, Helmick and others say Iraq's military is far more capable now. Iraq now controls security in 13 of 18 provinces and as of October, 107 of 164 Iraqi Army battalions had taken the lead from US forces or were operating independently.

Last spring, Iraqi soldiers gave Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki a big political boost when they trounced Shiite militias in Iraqi-led offensives in Baghdad and southern Basra.

"By the end of 2011, we will be able to fight terror. We will be able to maintain internal security," said Mohammad Al Askari, spokesman for Iraq's Defence Ministry.