By Xinhua
Washington : Iraqi forces are not ready to provide security despite the United States has spent billions of dollars on training them, a report issued by a U.S. House subcommittee on Wednesday said.
The United States has spent more than 19 billion U.S. dollars on training Iraqi soldiers and police officers, but the Iraqi forces are still not capable of taking security responsibility from U.S. forces, said the report, issued by the House Armed Services oversight and investigations subcommittee.
"The security forces are not capable of taking over security responsibility, as timelines for transition are repeatedly extended and violence has not significantly decreased across Iraq," said the report.
The report said the Iraqi government "is not yet capable of fully funding its security forces," and the Iraqi Defense and Interior ministries "are not fully capable of planning, programming, budgeting, or procuring required equipment and services."
According to the report, the U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq have trained and equipped about 350,000 Iraqis to take on the counterinsurgency mission, but "their operational capability to perform that mission has not been determined."
After the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003, it largely disbanded the Iraqi security forces but lacked a plan to rebuild them, the report said.