Troops Used for Politics, Yawer Says

The training of Iraqi security forces has suffered a serious setback in the last six months, with the army and other groups increasingly being used to settle scores and for other political purposes, Iraqi Vice President Ghazi Ajil Yawer said Monday.

Yawer disputed contentions by U.S. officials, including President Bush, that the training of security forces was gathering speed, producing more professional troops.

Bush has said the United States will not pull out of Iraq until Iraq’s own forces can maintain security. In a speech last week, he said Iraqis were becoming increasingly capable of securing the country.

Yawer, a Sunni Arab moderate, agrees that the U.S. can’t withdraw now because “there will be a huge vacuum,” leaving Iraq in danger of civil war. Shiite Muslim militias in particular, he said in an interview during a conference here, might try to incite war if coalition forces left.

Yawer said recent allegations that Interior Ministry security forces -- dominated by Shiites -- have tortured Sunni detainees demonstrated that many troops and police were increasingly politicized and sectarian. Some of the recently trained Iraqi forces are focused on settling scores and other political goals rather than maintaining security, he said.

In addition, some Iraqi military commanders have been dismissed for political reasons rather than judged on their merit, he said, adding that the army, also dominated by Shiites, is raiding towns in Sunni and mixed areas rather than targeting particular insurgents.