U.S. says more Iraqi troops are needed

A top U.S. military commander in Iraq called for more Iraqi troops to police troubled areas Sunday, a day in which at least 26 people were killed in attacks on civilians and police across the nation.

Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of the U.S. Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, said the shortage of Iraqi troops was forcing him and other commanders to recruit residents to police their neighborhoods.

“We need to add confident, capable Iraqi forces to maintain security,” he said. “They are getting better every day. But they are just not enough. There has to be aggressive recruiting to get more Iraqi soldiers and police on the rolls, properly trained and properly equipped.”

Last week, the Bush administration gave Congress a status report on Iraq in which the security forces received poor marks.

The report notes that the Iraqi government has established joint U.S.-Iraqi security stations and sent more soldiers into the capital, both deemed measures of progress. But, the report says, Iraqi security forces have struggled to meet the equally important benchmarks of working independently and free of sectarian influences.

According to the report, the number of Iraqi soldiers operating independently has decreased since January.

Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last week that the Pentagon’s next Iraq strategy review, due in September, might include a recommendation to attach more U.S. troops to Iraqi units as advisors.

On Sunday, Lynch, who oversees troops south of Baghdad and in the southern provinces of Babil, Karbala and Najaf, said he needed to increase Iraqi security forces by a third, with seven more Iraqi army battalions and five more Iraqi police units, to secure the area. An Iraqi army battalion can include 500 to more than 700 soldiers.

The Iraqi security forces comprise about 349,000 soldiers and police officers, said Navy Rear Adm. Mark Fox, a military spokesman. At a news conference Sunday in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, Fox said that in addition to the personnel shortage, the Iraqi forces, particularly police, also faced endemic corruption among their ranks and a “shortfall of loyalty.”

Lynch emphasized that it was unrealistic to expect that Iraq could build up its army and police overnight. He predicted it would take until autumn to clear militant strongholds in the area under his command, where 15,000 U.S. troops are assigned, and a “significant amount of time” to secure the region. Lynch said he expected to start handing over the area to Iraqi security forces in spring.

Faced with a shortage of Iraqi forces, the U.S. military has endorsed creating community watch groups to help fill the gaps.

“We are engaging with local population and asking them to be brought into security. Even if they are not legitimate members of Iraqi security forces, they want to secure their towns, their villages,” Lynch said.

He disputed the concern that these groups could turn into militias.

Lynch said he believed U.S. forces had made headway since the troop buildup, which has brought an additional 28,500 troops, began in February and that they remained committed to helping improve Iraqi security forces.

But some U.S. soldiers said they were uncertain when Iraqi forces would be able to assume responsibility for their own security.

In the majority-Sunni Arab areas around Yousifiya, about 10 miles south of the capital, U.S. soldiers said residents didn’t trust the mostly Shiite Muslim Iraqi troops patrolling their streets.

Nor do some of the Americans.

At a U.S. outpost in the village of Qaraghul, on the Euphrates River west of Yousifiya, American troops living with four Iraqi soldiers said they don’t allow the Iraqis to keep cellphones, to prevent them from leaking information about missions. Locals have accused Iraqi soldiers of stealing money, food and jewelry from their homes during clearing operations, U.S. troops said.

The Iraqi soldiers are also short on equipment, including night-vision goggles, so some missions have to be conducted during daylight hours, when it’s tougher to surprise targets.

“If we left in three months, it’s my hope they’d be able to control this place, but it would have be a martial-law type environment,” Capt. Aaron Bright said of the Iraqi army. Bright, a battery commander for the 2nd Battalion, 10th Mountain Division, is stationed at a patrol base about 25 miles southwest of Baghdad in the town of Latifiya.

Bright’s colleague, 1st Sgt. John Hunter, said the Iraqi army’s biggest problem was a lack of support from national leaders.

“My biggest worry is the Iraqi army being failed by the Iraqi government,” he said. “A strong military needs a strong government. These guys are just like us -- they sweat next to us; they’ve bled next to us.”

A U.S. soldier was killed Sunday in a bombing in Nineveh province, the military said today. It gave no details.

Sunday’s violence included at least two attacks on Iraqi security forces. Gunmen targeted border guards outside the northern town of Tanjavin, killing seven guards and injuring an eighth, said Kareem Sinjari, interior minister for the Kurdistan regional government. Sinjari said police were investigating whether the attack was organized by the Sunni militant group Ansar al Islam.

In the southern town of Madaen, an Iraqi policeman was killed and two civilians were injured in a roadside bombing.

A car bomb in the Karada neighborhood of central Baghdad killed at least 10 people and injured 25. In the largely Sunni west Baghdad neighborhood of Mansour, the bodies of eight Shiite men who had been kidnapped were found. Police recovered 22 bodies in the capital, all bearing gunshot wounds.

Adnan Dulaimi, head of the Sunni Arab bloc in parliament, survived a roadside bombing targeting his motorcade in west Baghdad, police said.

Southeast of Baghdad, in the Badra district bordering Iran, about 24 Iranian prisoners escaped after breaking the prison gate, Iraqi police said. Local security forces imposed a curfew as they searched for the prisoners.

molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com

--

Times staff writers Ned Parker, Tina Susman, Saif Rasheed, Saif Hameed and Wail Alhafith in Baghdad and special correspondents in Baghdad and Irbil contributed to this report.