Police training to pave way for troop's withdrawal
One of the first steps paving the way for British troops to leave southern Iraq could be taken within weeks, it emerged today.
British forces have been training local Iraqis, many of whom formed part of Saddam Hussein’s vast army before the war, to become the country’s new police force, since August.
For 15 hours a day, six days a week, hundreds of former civilians, soldiers and policemen are put through their paces in a bid to become the “finest security force the city of Basra has ever seen”.
Today, the officer in charge of the residential training camp said that if successful, it could prove to be the first stage of the British forces’ exit strategy.
Captain Alan Goodenough, of the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment, normally based at Catterick, North Yorkshire, said that until the British forces had arrived the Iraqi police had been treading water, but now they were being taught how to swim.
“The Iraqi police are doing a fine job but they are maintaining the status quo. It was never going to go forward, to tackle difficult gangs at work in the region and reduce crime.
“The way they conduct themselves on the street, the way they hold their weapons, we are taking these guys to this next stage further,” he said.
Since August 30, more than 150 Iraqi men have been shown by soldiers from the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment how to police Iraq’s second city properly in the future.
In two phases of the six-week training scheme, the students are first taught how to handle themselves and tackle criminals on the street.
In a second phase, they are then briefed on matters of policing such as gathering evidence and maintaining crime scenes.
More than a third will not graduate, but Captain Goodenough said that in little more than two weeks the first teams of 13 officers would be on the streets of Basra.
“It’s their country. They should police it,” he said. “At the moment they are not in a position to do so but with these guys they will be.
“There are certain tribes who are not going to want to take on these guys because knowing what they do they will lose.
“I expect they will try to test them early on but they will only do it once and they will lose.”
