DAR AL ISLAM - IRAQ: THE IRAQI ARMY/MILITARY IS UNABLE TO HOLD TERRITORY WITHOUT A SIGNIFICAN U.S. PRESENCE

U.S. commander says Iraqi forces unable to hold territory

BAGHDAD — Iraq's military and security forces remain too weak to control territory, despite more than three years of training.

"They're not quite up to the job yet," Brig. Gen. Mick Bednarek, deputy operational commander of the U.S. Army's 25th Infantry Division, said.

As a result, U.S. officers have concluded an early withdrawal would be a mistake.

U.S. commanders said the 350,000 members of the Iraqi armed forces were not capable of battling Al Qaida infiltration. As a result, the commanders said, U.S. troops would not be able to withdraw from areas cleared of Al Qaida and other Sunni insurgents.

Bednarek said Iraqi forces remain ill-equipped to retain territory without a significant U.S. presence. A commander of the U.S.-Iraqi operation in the Diyala province, Bednarek said the Iraqi military and police were short of ammunition, weapons, trucks and radios.

The assessment was shared by other U.S. commanders. They said U.S. troops must remain in and around Baghdad to ensure that neighborhoods remain free of Sunni insurgents.

"There's not enough of them," Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division, said. "So I believe the Iraqi government has got to work to create more Iraqi security forces."

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