How long are we going to be there?

[barry2952]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The only Iraqi battalion capable of fighting without U.S. support has been downgraded to a level requiring them to fight with American troops backing them up, the Pentagon said Friday.

The battalion, made up of 700 to 800 Iraqi Army soldiers, has repeatedly been offered by the U.S. as an example of the growing independence of the Iraqi military.

The competence of the Iraqi military has been cited as a key factor in when U.S. troops will be able to return home.

"As we see more of these Iraqi forces in the lead, we will be able to continue with our stated strategy that says as Iraqi forces stand up, we will stand down," President Bush said last month. (Full story)

The battalion, according to the Pentagon, was downgraded from "level one" to "level two" after a recent quarterly assessment of its capabilities.

"Level one" means the battalion is able to fight on its own; "level two" means it requires support from U.S. troops; and "level three" means it must fight alongside U.S. troops.

Though officials would not cite a specific reason for downgrading the unit, its readiness level has dropped in the wake of a new commander and numerous changes in the combat and support units, officials said.

The battalion is still deployed, and its status as an independent fighting force could be restored any day, Pentagon officials said. It was not clear where the battalion is operating within Iraq.

According to the congressionally mandated Iraq security report released Friday, there are 53 Iraqi battalions at level two status, up from 36 in October. There are 45 battalions at level three, according to the report.

Overall, Pentagon officials said close to 100 Iraqi army battalions are operational, and more than 100 Iraq Security Force battalions are operational at levels two or three. The security force operations are under the direction of the Iraqi government.

The numbers are roughly the same as those given by the president last month when he said 125 Iraqi combat battalions were fighting the insurgency, 50 of them taking the lead.

"In January 2006, the mission is to continue to hand over more and more territory and more and more responsibility to Iraqi forces," Bush said. "That's progress."

 

[TheDude]

A very long time, the insurgents/terrorist, whichever they're being called now will never surrender and unfortunately they have an endless supply of young men to turn to their cause.

 

[JohnnyBz00LS]

To borrow a quote from a fellow worker......

"We have discovered that the light at the end of the tunnel has turned out to be a proctoscope."

 

[JC1994]

very true....:leghumper

 

[MonsterMark]

How long are we going to be there?

I guess we could leave tomorrow and fight them over here next week.

 

[Calabrio]

These stories rarely ever explain just how independent a battalion has to be. This includes being able to do everything like supply lines to gathering intelligence. It doesn't mean that the Iraqi soldier aren't capable with a rifle, which is what too many people think it means.

 

[barry2952]

Were you in boot camp for a year?

 

[MonsterMark]

"Level one" means the battalion is able to fight on its own; "level two" means it requires support from U.S. troops; and "level three" means it must fight alongside U.S. troops.

Were you in boot camp for a year?

Do they teach remedial reading where you live?

 

[barry2952]

I wasn't asking you, big mouth.

Since you didn't have any military service your response was inappropriate.

Try picking your battles better. I was asking somebody with credibility.

 

[barry2952]

Iraqi forces probe general's "strange" killing

By Alastair Macdonald
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Iraqi army is investigating how a gunman managed to kill a senior Iraqi general in an attack that has fueled concern about the new, U.S.-trained Iraq military's cohesion in the face of brewing sectarian conflict.

"It is a very strange incident and raises many questions," an official in the Defense Ministry press service said on Tuesday after the commander of all Iraqi troops in Baghdad died from a bullet to the head while in a patrol convoy on Monday.

Another Iraqi general told Reuters it was an assassination that needed inside information and proved the army, recruited by U.S. officers over the past two years, had been infiltrated by factional militia groups ready to turn on fellow soldiers.

"The outsiders have hands on the inside," the general said.

The former U.S. commander in Baghdad said the killing of Major General Mubdar Hatim al-Dulaimi, a Sunni Muslim who commanded the 10,000-strong 6th Division in Baghdad, could be part of a move to establish Shi'ite control of the capital.

The division, among the best equipped and strongest of Iraq's new forces, has been on the frontline of preventing a civil war after sectarian bloodshed erupted two weeks ago over the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in the Sunni city of Samarra.

U.S. forces have handed operational control of about 70 percent of the city of Baghdad to Iraqi forces as part of a plan under which the 133,000 Americans now in Iraq will gradually withdraw as Iraqi forces are trained to take over.

Sectarian violence could jeopardize that strategy.

Dulaimi, a Saddam Hussein-era general who had a reputation for personal bravery, was in a convoy of 14 armored vehicles in an area of western Baghdad where Sunni insurgents are active, the Defense Ministry official said. He had driven out from his headquarters in late afternoon to investigate a gun battle.

"PRECISE INFORMATION"

The general was wearing body armor, the ministry official said. He opened the door of his four-wheel drive vehicle and a single bullet struck his head as he was putting on his helmet.

"The gunmen had very precise information," he said.

A security source at Baghdad's Yarmuk hospital said the bullet entered the right side of the general's head.

The ministry official, the Iraqi general and an Interior Ministry source all said one bullet was fired, apparently by a sniper in a high building. However, a second Defense Ministry official said many shots were fired and other troops wounded.

The hospital source said no wounded soldiers were admitted.

The Iraqi general said the killing could be the work of many groups, from Sunni insurgents to pro-government Shi'ite militias out to control the new armed forces in any civil war.

Senior U.S. officers have complained about efforts by the Shi'ite-led government to impose commanders in the city in the face of U.S. objections about their competence. Dulaimi is the most senior officer killed in Iraq since the U.S. invasion.

Major General William Webster, until January U.S. commander in Baghdad, told the Washington Post: "Losing a strong commander for even a little while in Baghdad could cause a further power shift toward what looks like the Shia control of the city."

The U.S. commander in Iraq, General George Casey, said in a statement: "This tragic incident will neither impede the 6th Iraqi Army Division from continuing its mission of securing Baghdad nor derail the formation of the government of Iraq."

The U.S. occupying authority disbanded Saddam's 300,000- strong armed forces after the 2003 invasion, a move blamed by some for chaos and turning Sunni ex-soldiers into insurgents.

Since recruiting began for a new army, vetting has excluded many of Saddam's Sunni-dominated senior officer corps.

President George W. Bush says U.S. troops will pull out of Iraq as local security forces, now numbering some 230,000, take over. But despite U.S. efforts to ensure a sectarian and ethnic mix, many Sunnis see the security forces as hostile to them.

 

[TheDude]

"The outsiders have hands on the inside,"

If that statement is true, it's safe to say America will have no choice but to stay in Iraq with a large active military force indefinately.