Surge = Training Op for Iraqis

Ongoing surge oper­a­tions in Baghdad are dou­bling as train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for Iraqi sol­diers, air­men and gov­ern­ment offi­cials. U.S. strat­egy entails turn­ing over respon­si­bil­ity for secu­rity in Iraq to native enti­ties as soon as theyre ready; the demands of the surge have forced Iraqis to be read­ier, sooner.
Iraqi army bat­tal­ions dis­in­te­grated last year when we tried to move them around, says Major General William Caldwell, spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq, refer­ring to sev­eral Iraqi units that refused to deploy to trou­ble spots from their home bases in the north or south of the coun­try. Many of the Iraqi sol­diers involved cited a lack of prepa­ra­tion. Now we have them ready to move, Caldwell stresses. By the mid­dle of March, we should have three Iraqi brigades in Baghdad.
Iraqi forces in the con­tested city now num­ber more than 20,000, and Iraqi offi­cers have taken the lead in many Baghdad mis­sions. The tiny Iraqi air force is step­ping up oper­a­tions, as well, fly­ing troop trans­port mis­sions for deploy­ing units using three U.S.-donated Lockheed Martin C-​​130E Hercules air­lifters in addi­tion to con­duct­ing Baghdad sur­veil­lance with CH-​​2000 recon­nais­sance planes.
Theres been an increase in Iraqi air force oper­a­tions in recent weeks, says Brigadier General Stephen Hoog, chief U.S. trainer for the Iraqi air ser­vice. They did their first mede­vac mis­sion about seven days ago theyre set­ting up chan­nel mis­sions to take wounded north­ern Iraqi troops back home. And the CH-​​2000s are going on one or two mis­sions every day check­ing out check­points. All thats miss­ing from oper­a­tions is Iraqs size­able force of heli­copters, which are await­ing the instal­la­tion of the defen­sive gear they need for Baghdad mis­sions. By the mid­dle of sum­mer, well see much greater par­tic­i­pa­tion of their heli­copters.
The surge hinges on sig­nif­i­cant diplo­matic efforts by Iraqi politi­cians aim­ing to cut off the flow of weapons and insur­gents into Baghdad and to keep the citys mili­tias peace­ful. The U.S. gov­ern­ment got the Iraqi Prime Minister [Nouri Al Maliki] to make it clear to the mili­tias that theres no room for mili­tias, and that those that ignored that warn­ing were going to be dealt with, reports Ambassador Daniel Speckhard, deputy chief of the U.S. mis­sion. As a result, many of them dis­solved or have ended their activ­ity or moved out of Baghdad. Speckhard adds that Al Maliki recently took his first offi­cial trip to west­ern Iraq to meet with tribal lead­ers who are key to inter­cept­ing weapons com­ing in from Syria.
–David Axe, cross-​​posted at War Is Boring

March 27th, 2007 | War Update | 241131 Comments »http://defensetech.org/2007/03/27/surge-training-op-for-iraqis/Surge+%3D+Training+Op+for+Iraqis2007-03-27+15%3A18%3A03murdoc You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.