Iraqi forces ‘not ready’ to take on security job
By Xinhua
Washington: Iraqi forces are not ready to provide security despite America spending billions of dollars to train them, a US Congressional report said.
The US has spent more than $19 billion on training Iraqi soldiers and police officers, but the forces are still not capable of taking security responsibility, said the report of house armed services oversight and investigations subcommittee.
The report said the Iraqi government “is not yet capable of fully funding its security forces” and the Iraqi defence and interior ministries “are not fully capable of planning, programming, budgeting, or procuring required equipment and services”.
According to the report, the US-led coalition forces in Iraq have trained and equipped about 350,000 Iraqis to take on counterinsurgency missions, but “their operational capability to perform that mission has not been determined”.
After the US invaded Iraq in March 2003, it largely disbanded the Iraqi security forces but lacked a plan to rebuild them, the report said.