U.S. says Iraqi security forces’ abilities limited

By Will Dunham and Vicki Allen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Only half of Iraq’s police
battalions are capable of carrying out operations against
insurgents and two-thirds of army battalions and the rest of
the police are no more than “partially capable,” according to a
U.S. military assessment made public on Thursday.

“Only a small number of Iraqi Security Forces are taking on
the insurgents and terrorists by themselves,” according to an
unclassified assessment provided to the Senate Armed Services
Committee by Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the
U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Pace’s assessment was provided to reporters on the same day
the Pentagon gave lawmakers, more than a week late, a 23-page
congressionally mandated report on the status of Iraq on
political, economic and security fronts.

The Bush administration has said U.S. forces cannot leave
Iraq until American-trained Iraqi security forces are capable
of protecting their own country, currently gripped by a
tenacious insurgency that arose in 2003 after a U.S.-led
invasion toppled President Saddam Hussein.

Administration officials often cite progress being made by
these security forces.

But Pace, poised to become the top U.S. military officer
this fall, told lawmakers only about a third of Iraqi army
battalions are capable of planning, executing and sustaining
operations against insurgents with the support of U.S.-led
foreign forces.

“Approximately two-thirds of their army battalions and one
half of their police battalions are partially capable of
conducting counterinsurgency operations in conjunction with
coalition units,” Pace’s assessment stated. “Approximately one
half of their police battalions are forming and not yet capable
of conducting operations.”

The majority of Iraqi security forces are involved in
operations against rebels, Pace stated, noting many have
“performed superbly” and their capability is continuing to
improve.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Wednesday said some
Iraqi security forces were “green as grass,” meaning
inexperienced, while others were “battle-hardened and very,
very good.”

The Pentagon did not make public the section of its report
to Congress dealing with future U.S. troop levels in Iraq. The
United States has roughly 140,000 troops in Iraq.

The report offered no assessment of when U.S. forces might
be withdrawn, saying such a decision is “conditions-based, not
calendar-based” and will come only when “there is a free Iraq
in which Iraqis themselves are the guarantors of their own
liberty and security.”

Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, top Armed Services Committee
Democrat, said he would press to have more information on Iraqi
force capabilities made public. “Otherwise the American people
are going to be left out of this process in determining just
how long our troops can remain there,” Levin said.

The report said as of this month there were 171,300 Iraqi
security forces, including about 76,700 in the army, 600 in the
Air Force and Navy, and 94,000 under the control of the
Department of the Interior, most of whom are police. The report
said 62,000 police were on duty as of late June.

The army was 40 percent short of its authorized equipment
level, although it has more than 100 percent of its AK-47
automatic weapon requirements, it said.

“The rate of absenteeism, AWOL, attrition and desertion in
the IPS (Iraqi Police Service) varies by province. Most police
units have experienced a decrease in absenteeism as the number
of trained police has increased. The exact extent of insurgent
infiltration is unknown,” the report said.

AWOL rates from new Iraqi army units “were in double
digits” throughout 2004, but the report said the situation has
been “addressed in large measure” by increased funding although
“such problems have not been entirely solved.”

The report also said that, while the number of monthly
attacks on Iraq’s oil facilities, electric generation and other
infrastructure had gone down since January’s historic election,
they continued “to have an adverse impact on electricity
transmission and oil exports.”

(Additional reporting by Charles Aldinger)