Iraqi Security Forces Unlikely To Be Effective: Report [View All]

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Iraqi Security Forces Unlikely To Be Effective: Report

Iraqi security forces are unlikely to be effective in curbing the rise in sectarian violence, an influential global security think-tank said May 24, casting doubt on claims to the contrary by the new Iraqi prime minister.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) raised its doubts on the same day Nuri al-Malaki separately assessed that Iraqi forces will be ready to take over from U.S.-led coalition troops by November 2007.

”Numbers of U.S.-trained government forces fighting the insurgency have continued to rise. However the speed with which the new Iraqi army and more particularly the police force have been built does raise problems,” the report said.

”The rank and file of both forces are neither well enough trained to be fully effective on their own, nor sufficiently loyal to the national government to remain above the sectarian struggles gouging Iraq’s sense of national identity.