Diversity in Iraq’s Armed Services Is General’s Goal

The American officer in charge of training Iraq’s security forces vowed Thursday to promote diversity in order to cool sectarian passions.

“We have to build a system for them that is built for diversity,” said Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, who in a flag-festooned ceremony inside Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone took over as commander of the operation to train Iraqi security forces. “We are very careful to encourage and in some cases insist on diversity.”

Iraq’s armed forces, which under Saddam Hussein were dominated by Sunni Arabs, were dissolved in May 2003 by U.S. civilian administrator L. Paul Bremer III. U.S. and NATO officials have struggled to get a new Iraqi army up and running. The new troops are predominantly Shiites and Kurds, many of them former members of political militias, exacerbating tensions with the Sunnis, who have driven the insurgency.

So far, 115 Iraqi army and special police battalions of about 700 troops each have been declared battle ready and deployed throughout Iraq, U.S. officials say. But U.S. officials acknowledge that only a few are able to operate without any U.S. support. In three dozen units, Americans play an advisory role.

U.S. and Iraqi commanders say they have been frustrated in their attempts to create an army that reflects Iraq’s ethnic and sectarian mix.

Iraqi soldiers this week began chanting “Long live [Grand Ayatollah Ali] Sistani!” the clerical leader of Iraq’s Shiites, as soon as they were handed control of the Shiite shrine city of Najaf, south of Baghdad.

“We should all thank Sistani,” said an Iraqi sergeant who gave only his first name, Raad. “He spent the last two years putting out huge fires in Iraq. We pray for his health and vitality.”

Iraq’s Sunni Arabs fear the new armed forces will be used against their communities. Sunnis often make a play on words, referring to the U.S.-trained national guard as “heras al-wathani,” which in Arabic means the guardians of the pagans.

A U.S. military officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Americans tried to convince Iraqis that mixed units were important, but could not impose such demands on a sovereign nation.

“Ours is a cajoling function,” he said.

Working with Iraq’s Defense Ministry, U.S. forces have recruited more than 4,000 Sunnis in the last two months, the officer said. But new military units that start out with different ethnic and sectarian groups sometimes end up homogenous because soldiers quit.

Dempsey, who replaced Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, was commander of the Army’s 1st Armored Division during its deployment to Baghdad from mid-2003 to mid-2004.

He told reporters that he hoped the diversity of the U.S. Army might inspire Iraqis to create an army that reflects their nation’s ethnic and religious mix.

Dempsey denied published reports that the United States had refrained from giving the Iraqis sophisticated military equipment because of fears of a civil war. He said Iraqi troops aren’t yet sufficiently trained to use certain types of equipment.

The Americans also have been frustrated by the level of professionalism in operations.

Outside Baqubah, 35 miles north of Baghdad, a battalion attached to the 42nd Infantry Division found progress slow. In one incident last week, a U.S. officer inspecting an Iraqi checkpoint chastised his local counterpart.

“Our problem is that your soldiers are not manning the checkpoints properly,” Lt. Col. Oscar J. Hall IV told the Iraqi commander. “They stand out in the open. They don’t wear their flak jackets. I’m not going to keep playing this game.”

In other developments Thursday, three car bombs killed two Iraqis in Baghdad and injured 11, and the military reported that a U.S. soldier had died Wednesday near Fallouja in an industrial accident.

U.S. and Iraqi soldiers continued an offensive to root out insurgents in the northern city of Tall Afar, leaving seven dead, the Iraqi Defense Ministry said. U.S. forces captured a suspected insurgent bomb-maker known as Abu Mohammed near the western town of Husaybah, the military announced.

Times staff writers Noam N. Levey in Baqubah and Ashraf Khalil in Najaf contributed to this report.