Agence France-Presse, 22 April 2007
BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraq and the United States are to spend 14 billion dollars and recruit 40,000 new soldiers into the Iraqi armed forces in the next 18 months, a US military commander said Sunday.
US army Lieutenant General Martin Dempsey, who is in charge of training Iraqi security forces, said that America will spend five billion dollars and the remaining nine billion would come from Iraqi coffers.
Dempsey said the plan is driven by how "the Iraqis want their security forces to look" in the future and and not just to "solve problems of today."
By end of 2007, the Iraqi army will field 170,700 soldiers -- 34,500 more than at the end of last year -- and swell from 10 to 12 divisions.
The Iraqi police force -- including local, national and border patrol units -- will grow to 198,600 personnel, up from 192,200 in December 2006.
With domestic support for continuing the four-year-old US military mission in Iraq crumbling, the military has made a priority of training competent and well-armed Iraqi forces to replace its units on the ground.
Iraqi and US security forces are regularly attacked by insurgents, with the US military itself having lost more than 3,300 troops in the past four years and its Iraqi comrades many thousands more.
The plan will also involve equipping the existing security forces with new American-made weapons, Dempsey said.
"We intend to take out the AK-47s and replace them with M16," he said, revealing that the veteran Soviet-designed assault rifle will be replaced by its American equivalent, which is still issued to some US units.
Dempsey said Iraqi forces are currently equipped with weapons supplied by US-led coalition countries, the government of Iraq, weapons that have been donated by other countries and also those captured in raids.
In an attempt to ensure that weapons remain the hands of government forces, every soldier "will go through biometric screening" to issue them with secure ID cards tied to the issue of specific arms.
There have been many reports in recent years of Iraqi personnel selling US-issued weapons and ammunition on the open market.
Developing Iraq's tiny air force will be a tough task, the general said.
"The challenge is to build pilots. Most pilots stopped serious flying in 1991 which means Iraq has missed a generation of pilots," he said.
"Weaponry is not the issue, it's the pilots," the general said, adding that over the next five to six years, 135 new pilots would be recruited annually.
The air force, which is already conducting transport and surveillance operations will also be equipped with 28 new Russian Mi-17 and American 16 UH-II helicopters in 2007.
The Iraqi navy, seen as vital to protect the country's oil platforms, will also expand this year. Around 900 new sailors and marines will be recruited along with new patrol boats, Dempsey said.
---------------------------------
Citation: "US to help Iraq recruit 40,000 troops," Agence France-Presse, 22 April 2007.
Original URL: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070422/wl_mideast_afp/iraqussecurity
---------------------------------