Tim Arango
December 31, 2014
U.S. Troops, Back in Iraq, Train a Force to Fight ISIS
BAGHDAD — The United States has begun training a first wave of Iraqi Army recruits, in recent days putting them through morning fitness exercises and instructing them in marksmanship and infantry tactics, in an effort to gather enough forces to mount a spring offensive against the extremists of the Islamic State.
Military officials here say the first of the American-trained recruits, who answered the call to arms by Iraqi religious leaders over the summer and have completed some basic training under the Iraqis, will be ready to join the fight against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, by mid-February. Pushing forward, officials say the goal is to train 5,000 new recruits every six weeks.
“These are new patriots of Iraq, that have actually signed up, have been through basic training and are now ready to go through some advanced training,” said Maj. Gen. Paul E. Funk II, the American commander who is overseeing the training program.
More than six months after the Islamic State’s lightning advance through northern Iraq forced a reluctant President Obama to order a new United States military mission here, an American training program for the Iraqi security forces has begun to take shape. In recent days, the first recruits, about 1,600 men in four battalions, have been received by American instructors at Camp Taji, a base north of Baghdad. Others have begun arriving at Al Asad Air Base in Anbar Province, joining roughly 200 American Marines and Special Forces soldiers.
The American presence in Iraq is expected to grow in the coming weeks, to more than 3,000 personnel from about 1,800. The American military already has a presence in Baghdad and Erbil, the Kurdish capital in the north, and has plans for two more training sites: one for Special Forces in Baghdad and another in Besmaya, south of the capital.
The current American training program is dwarfed by past efforts: $25 billion over eight years to assemble a security force that crumbled this year in the face of the onslaught from the Islamic State.
The training program, for now, is focused on building manpower to throw at the fight against the Islamic State, and not on solving the deeper problems of the Iraqi security forces, such as endemic corruption and poor leadership. Although there are American advisers working closely with top Iraqi military officers, officials say a broader restructuring of the Iraqi Army, with the help of the Americans, will be undertaken once the Islamic State is defeated.
Maj. Gen. Dana J. H. Pittard, the deputy to Lt. Gen. James L. Terry, who oversees Army forces in the Middle East, said the question guiding the training program is, “What are the bare minimum basics needed for counterattacking?”
Notably — and perhaps ominously, in a country deeply divided by sect — the vast majority of the trainees so far are Shiites from southern Iraq, even the recruits who have been assigned to work with United States instructors in Sunni-dominated Anbar Province.
Americans en route to Iraq. The United States presence is set to grow to 3,000 from 1,800. Credit Ayman Oghanna for The New York Times
American officials have said that a major campaign to retake the Sunni-majority areas under Islamic State control would require Sunni forces, for both the fight and to hold the territory afterward.
One reason for the Islamic State’s success was that Sunnis, a minority in Iraq, had become so disenchanted under the Shiite-dominated government that in some areas they considered the national army an occupying force and the Islamic State as liberators.
Yet, so far, only a small unit of 250 Sunni tribal fighters has been trained and equipped, with American help, in Anbar.
The evolving training mission coincides with the higher-level military planning among Iraqi and American officials about the details and timetable for a planned spring offensive against the Islamic State, a campaign that has already begun with an increase in American and coalition airstrikes around Mosul, aimed at isolating the city and cutting off crucial supply lines.
Since June, when Mosul fell, the Iraqi Army, working with Iranian-backed Shiite militias, has had some successes, most notably in blunting the initial Islamic State offensive before it reached Baghdad. In the north, Kurdish fighters, backed by American airstrikes, have recently retaken a large amount of territory and cut off an important highway that had been a supply route for Islamic State militants.
While the Americans would like to focus on infantry tactics and getting the Iraqis into fighting shape, the Iraqi Army has trouble maintaining bases or even supplying its soldiers with water. For weeks, American soldiers have had to tend to basic tasks, like refurbishing buildings and filling sandbags. At Camp Taji they even had to ask the Iraqis to cut the grass at the shooting range.
“They are already looking at us to provide food, water, everything to sustain them,” said a Marine major stationed at Al Asad Air Base, who asked that his name not be used because he is worried that identifying him could put his family back at home at risk of a so-called lone wolf attack by a sympathizer of the Islamic State. “That worries me.”
The major also said it was unclear what would happen if the air base, which is surrounded by the Islamic State, should come under attack. Should the Marines help defend the Iraqis, or flee?
The small Marine compound in the vast base is under constant attack by rockets and mortars, although there have been no casualties. Then there is the fear of attacks from the Iraqis themselves, the ones they are supposed to train.
“I always have those concerns,” said the major. “We are trained to watch each other’s backs.”
The six-week curriculum for the Iraqi soldiers was developed in recent months by the Americans and Iraqis, with a final sign-off by the office of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. In addition to basic infantry skills, the Americans are teaching the Iraqis map reading, intelligence collection, the laws of warfare and how to treat the civilian population so that it supports the government rather than the militants. Every Friday, there is a class on ethics.
The training effort, which is being aided by Australia, Britain and Norway, among other countries, is in some respects a race against time, as the Islamic State group is becoming more entrenched in urban areas. So a special focus is on urban warfare, with role-playing exercises for how to differentiate between civilians and militants.
“As they go into those areas, it’s building to building, house to house,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Tony Grinston, who oversees the curriculum and works under General Funk. “And that’s not that bad if you just take down the house, but we’re not going to take down the houses.”
He continued, “We’ve got to separate, room to room maybe, one insurgent and then a family.”
Given the course of events over the last decade, and the narrow scope of the American involvement now, there is a sense among the soldiers here of the limits of the United States’ ability to shape current events in Iraq.
“They need to take advantage of this opportunity, they being the Iraqis,” General Funk said. “They know this is close to the end for them in terms of opportunities. It’s time to stand on their own feet, move forward, make things happen.”
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