Rebuilding the Iraqi army: a 'tremendous' challenge

[Barrett808]

BAQUBA, Iraq (AFP) - A platoon of Iraqi soldiers takes position outside a building, some provide cover while others break down the door and rush around the different rooms. "It's done!" says one finally -- the house is secure.

It is not a real house -- hanging from the walls are ropes attached to pegs so that Iraqi instructors can correct the movement and positioning of soldiers at this training camp in Diyala north of Baghdad.

"They already had a basic training. Here, they learn collective training, as a platoon, for two weeks," said Sergeant Lloyd Pegues of the US army's Third Infantry Division which is conducting a "military transition mission" in Iraq.

Pegues says it still sometimes surprises him that he now trains Iraqi instructors -- men who he fought against little over two years ago during the invasion.

"We are facing a tremendous challenge: manning, equipping, training a new army, and at the same time fighting insurgents alongside it. It's like building an aircraft on flight," explains commanding officer Lieutenant-Colonel Daniel Kessler, head of the Military Transition Team in Baquba, 60 kilometers (38 miles) north of Baghdad.

"If we succeed here, in such a mixed province -- half Sunni and half Shiite -- we will succeed everywhere in Iraq," said Kessler, who works every day with his counterpart in the Iraqi army brigade deployed to Diyala (population 1.8 million).

(more)

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050731/wl_mideast_afp/iraqarmyus

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