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Fears
that the Iraqi military is being given too much
responsibility without the personnel and hardware it
needs to take on insurgents.
When the Iraqi army’s Fourth Infantry Division
raised their national flag over a palace once owned
by Saddam Hussein in his home town of Tikrit last
month, the American military expressed confidence
that their local allies were ready to start taking
charge of security.
But some of the Iraqi military personnel put in
charge of security in Tikrit and the surrounding
area are not so sure, and say much more needs to be
done if they are to succeed.
Lieutenant-Colonel Yadgar Hijran Mahmood, the deputy
commander of the Fourth Division, said he has
neither the manpower nor the material resources to
combat the insurgency successfully. And he worries
what will happen when United States forces, with
their overwhelming firepower and armour, leave the
area.
“We have only a small number of Kalashnikovs and
pistols,” he said. “We need armoured vehicles and
heavy weapons to defeat our enemies.”
There have been months of work to train the new
Iraqi army and a police force capable of countering
the continuing attacks and bombings. But the job has
not been easy, and army and police units often find
themselves the prime targets.
Recruiting centres have been hit by a spate of
bombings throughout the summer, killing scores of
volunteers. Volunteers still crowd recruiting
stations, eager for one of the few decent-paying
jobs in the country. But those who join up find that
the dangers and stresses of the job take a toll on
their morale.
Lieutenant-Colonel Mahmood said many of the
division’s soldiers lack real commitment, and
because the unit lacks the resources to pursue and
punish deserters, soldiers can go absent without
leave with no fear of the consequences.
As a result, while the division has a notional
strength of 600 soldiers, its true size is a quarter
that number.
“A large number of soldiers and officers I only see
at the end of the month when they come to receive
their salaries,” said Mahmood.
An added problem facing the Fourth Division in its
new base in the Sunni Arab heartland is that it is
largely made up of Kurdish soldiers and until it was
redeployed here, it was based in Tuz Khurmatu, a
town with a sizeable Kurdish population 200
kilometres northeast of Tikrit.
Mahmood is unhappy about the redeployment, saying it
is hard to convince soldiers to defend an area to
which they owe no real allegiance.
He adds that discipline in the new Iraqi army
compares unfavourably with that peshmerga or Kurdish
guerrillas of which he is a former member. Sometimes
he dreams about giving it up and going home to his
village in Erbil, in the Kurdish-ruled part of
northern Iraq.
But the officer does not speak for all the soldiers
serving in the unit, many of whom are enthusiastic
and committed.
“I fear only Him who created me,” said Shirwan
Ramathan, a Kurd who joined the Iraqi national force
four months ago. “Even if I have only a knife, I
will fight the terrorists until I defeat them, or
until I die and become a martyr.”
This is the kind of discipline and commitment Iraqi
soldiers must have to succeed, said an American
military officer who identified himself to IWPR as
Captain Jordan.
“The Iraqi soldier is in a state of war with
terrorism. He either has to learn quickly and
outfight [the enemy] or he will die on the
battlefield,” said Jordan. “I think within two
years, the Iraqi army will be capable of taking over
completely. Then the American army will be able to
withdraw from Iraq.”
Major-General Joseph Taluto, the commander of the US
Army’s 42nd Infantry Division which is responsible
for north-central Iraq, was similarly upbeat about
the national army, which he said was developing
continually and was now capable of undertaking
certain security tasks on its own.
“We are keen on providing them with heavy weapons
and armoured vehicles and training them in the
various fighting arts,” said Taluto. “The task of
the American forces is preparing and training an
Iraqi army able to provide security in order to
control the country and thwart the terrorists.”
Local people interviewed in and around Tikrit were
more doubtful about the Iraqi military’s capacities,
saying they had seen little evidence that the
government is able to ensure security.
“The government has failed to control the security
situation,” said Faris Mahmood al-Tikriti, a police
officer with the Salahaddin regional police
department, which includes Tikrit.
He said the only reason there is security in Tikrit
is because people themselves, and the tribes in
particular, have taken charge of the matter.
A local elder, Sheikh Nawaf Salih al-Hamad, said
these local initiatives had calmed the situation
down sufficiently for residents to be able to go
about their lives, “We do our day jobs from morning
till evening, and at night we even go to the diwan,
or tribal guest house, to drink tea and coffee.”
Nevertheless, Sheikh al-Hamad would be happy if
Iraqi security forces rather than local citizen and
tribal groups were in control. “If there are
competent people from the police and army to
preserve the safety of the citizens and the country,
we would support the withdrawal of the multinational
forces,” he said.
Others in Tikrit, however, point out that putting
the army in place is all very well, but it will not
in itself change the multiple problems facing areas
like Tikrit.
“We are always saying that the political situation
is linked to security, and that in turn is linked to
the economic situation. This means that there are
three tracks that need to be worked on seriously and
at the same time,” said Fahran al-Sadid, a local
engineer who is part of the National Dialogue
Council, a leading Sunni political grouping.
While the new constitution, a final draft of which
was produced in August and should be put before a
national referendum in October, is supposed to help
bring about political consensus, local civil society
activist Khansa Abdul-Wahab does not see how it will
change the security situation.
“There won’t be any practical and constructive moves
to eliminate the root causes of this situation,” he
said. “The most important of these would be to
provide people with employment opportunities.”
It is precisely the rampant unemployment affecting
young people that feeds the insurgency, said Awaitf
al-Juburi, a member of the provincial council of
Salahaddin governorate, “Unemployment and poor
living conditions among young people is a lever that
can be exploited.”
It is unlikely that Lieutenant-General Abdul-Aziz
al-Mufti, commander-in-chief of the Fourth Division,
can address such wider concerns as he attempts to
hold down the security situation.
Like his deputy Lieutenant-Colonel Mahmood, the
general is not entirely clear why the division was
shifted to Tikrit. He speculatates that it might
have something to do with the fact that Salahaddin
Yusuf ibn Ayyub – better known in the West as
Saladin, the great 12th century Muslim commander who
fought the Crusading armies –was a Kurd who came
from around here.
Lieutenant-General al-Mufti is certain that his unit
will turn the situation around fairly quickly and
replicate the stability seen in northern Kurdish
towns.
“Within a short while I will Tikrit an oasis for
security and stability, so that it becomes another
Sulaimaniyah,” he said
Safa al-Mansoor and Jasim al-Sabawi are IWPR
trainees.
www.iwpr.net
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