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US trainer says Iraq police helping secure country

Posted on: Friday, 3 February 2006, 12:50 CST

By Charles Aldinger

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iraq's police commandos are becoming a major spearhead of security in the country but must learn to temper battlefield aggression with democratic values, a U.S. military trainer said on Friday.

Army Col. Jeffrey Buchanan told Pentagon reporters in a teleconference from Iraq that the new National Police Commando Division was making progress in fair treatment of civilians under the close watch of U.S. and other coalition troops.

Unlike local police, the commandos are recruited at a national level and most have served in the security forces of former President Saddam Hussein's government.

Despite incidents of sectarian violence by Iraqi security forces and reported torture of Sunni Muslims in secret Iraqi jails, Buchanan said, "We think we're making great progress in the behavioral dimension."

But "values -- understanding what it's like to be a servant of society as part of a democratically elected government -- is something that is going to take time to learn," he said.

Buchanan is commander of the 2nd Brigade of the Army's 75th Division and heads the U.S. military teams that train and operate with the national police, who deploy like fast-moving infantry units instead of cops directing traffic.

A commando force of 11,000 has been authorized but only 8,900 positions have been filled so far, he said.

"The commandos actually do a very good job vetting all recruits, which is one of the reasons why we're not at full strength," Buchanan said.

"They recruit only through word of mouth. We don't have recruiting centers set up in a mall or something like that. Basically, every guy that comes in is known to some of his fellow comrades, which is a way of cutting down potential infiltration."

Buchanan cited only two incidents of successful infiltration by insurgents in the past year. One of those resulted in a suicide bombing that killed five Iraqi police and injured more than a dozen other.

"Obviously, these guys, one of their strengths is that they are aggressive," Buchanan said of the police infantry troops, hundreds of whom guard the once-deadly but now-secure road between downtown Baghdad and the Iraqi capital's airport.

"What we try to do is ensure that their aggressiveness does not go over the top and that they operate in accordance with Iraqi law."

Buchanan said at one point he personally had to step in and halt police aggression against a captured Iraqi insurgent.

Source: REUTERS

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