By Alastair Macdonald
Reuters, 29 December 2005
BAGHDAD, Dec 29 (Reuters) - The U.S. army in Baghdad plans to deploy large numbers of troops with Iraqi special police units to try to curb suspected sectarian militia activity among the police, a senior U.S. military official said on Thursday.
"We're going to try to wrap ourselves around them," the official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"The lines are blurred now and it's not easy to determine that some operation tonight was directed ... by the MoI (Interior Ministry) or ... by some people in uniform ... who are part of somebody's posse," he said.
"We're trying to control that."
Strained relations between U.S. forces and Iraq's Interior Ministry were highlighted last month when American troops found dozens of abused Sunni Arab prisoners at a secret ministry site in Baghdad.
Two more such secret jails have since been discovered in Baghdad, the official said, as well as one in northern Iraq.
U.S. officials have voiced mounting concern that violence by pro-government, pro-Iranian Shi'ite militias could prolong unrest by alienating minority Sunni Arabs, so delaying a U.S. withdrawal.
"I'm very concerned about militias," the official said.
Nine special police brigades in Baghdad each have 40 to 45 U.S. personnel attached to them to train and liaise with the U.S. command, he said; the plan would raise that to hundreds of Americans, similar to ratios seen with the Iraqi army.
"By hugging the enemy, wrapping our arms around them, we hope to control them ... like we did with the army," he said, noting that the Interior Ministry was not enthusiastic about the idea. The plan was likely to be approved shortly, he said.
Officials at the Interior Ministry were unavailable for comment. Last week, the U.S. ambassador called for non-sectarian leadership at the ministry.
The present minister, Bayan Jabor, is from the SCIRI Shi'ite Islamist party whose Badr militia allies are widely accused by Sunnis of controlling some police units.
The ministry could change hands during negotiations on a new governing coalition following this month's election.
"PARTNERSHIPS"
A spokesman for the U.S. command which oversees cooperation with Iraqi forces confirmed plans to create "partnerships" between Iraqi special police and U.S. military units along the lines seen between the U.S. and Iraqi armies.
"This is in development," Lieutenant Colonel Fred Wellman said, adding that, with U.S. forces hoping to hand over security to Iraqis as far as possible, the police would play a key role over the coming year in taking over Iraqi cities like Baghdad.
"2006 we're going to call the year of the police," he said.
Wellman said the partnership plan was not a response to problems with the police: "It's not a failure to perform on the part of the special police or a failure of the system," he said.
But the senior military official made clear that this was part of the reason for proposing the plan in Baghdad that, he said, could be a model for police forces across the country.
"There were some elements of it allowed to grow that we may not fully have understood," he said of the way U.S. forces stood by while the police forces were massively expanded last year.
"The commandos and the public order brigades grew like Topsy, without much control," he said, adding that SCIRI's Badr organisation appeared to have influence over parts of the police.
"They can tell us to get lost but we ain't going to get lost," the official said of Iraqi commanders. "If we find they're breaking the law, then we're going to arrest them."
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Citation: Alastair Macdonald. "U.S. forces aim to bring Iraq police under control," Reuters, 29 December 2005.
Original URL: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L29252025.htm
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