Violence hindering growth of Iraqi forces

[unhappycamper]

Violence hindering growth of Iraqi forces
By Pauline Jelinek - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Dec 3, 2007 19:10:19 EST

WASHINGTON — Iraqis have not made enough progress toward learning to manage their security forces because they’ve had to divert too much attention to continued violence and sectarianism, U.S. congressional investigators said Monday.

For example, Iraqi recruits to the Army who were designated for training as logistics specialists have been diverted to combat roles, said the report by the Government Accountability Office.

The report said the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Interior have made some progress in the last year. The defense ministry has developed lower echelon logistics units for the military and the interior ministry has established an intelligence organization.

“While the Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Interior, with coalition assistance, made some progress since August 2006 in developing their respective logistics, command and control, and intelligence capabilities ... persistent violence and sectarianism, along with immature ministerial capacity, continue to impede this progress,” the report said.

It said the Ministry of Defense has yet to develop adequate personnel management and support functions, Iraqi support specialists are not being employed in the positions for which they were trained, and schools for training those specialists lack fuel, equipment and supplies.

At the Ministry of Interior, violence has prevented contractors from completing the installation of a command and control network and hampered intelligence capabilities, the report said.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/12/ap_iraqiforces_071203/