Iraqi police training 'botched'
The US has botched the training of police in Iraq, members of the influential Iraq Study Group said today.
Former Congressman Lee Hamilton and ex-Attorney General Edwin Meese said the agencies assigned to the job, which was just as important as building an effective army, did not have sufficient expertise.
As a result, they claimed, Iraq has little law enforcement on its streets and a corrupt judiciary.
Meanwhile, the New York Times reported that attackers who used American-style uniforms and weapons to infiltrate a secure compound and kill five US soldiers in Iraq were believed to have been trained and financed by Iranian agents.
US and Iraqi officials told the newspaper the sophistication of the attack had astonished investigators, who doubted Iraqis could have carried it out on their own.
They did not reveal any direct evidence of a connection with Iran however, and said no firm conclusions had been drawn.
America’s number two general in Iraq told USA Today Iran had been supplying Iraqi militias with a variety of powerful weapons including Katyusha rockets.
“We have weapons that we know through serial numbers ... that trace back to Iran,” Lieutenant General Raymond Odierno said.
Last week the White House confirmed that President George Bush had authorised US troops to take action against Iranian agents in Iraq.
Mr Hamilton told the Senate Judiciary Committee: “The police training system has not gone well.”
He and Mr Meese said the job of shaping Iraq’s judicial system was wrongly give first to the State Department and private contractors who “did not have the expertise or the manpower to get the job done”.
In 2004 the Defence Department took over, but its officials not sufficiently trained either, they added.
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