The Pentagon, seeking to turn the tide and strengthen Iraqi fighting forces in the battle against the Islamic State, is close to sending the White House its new plan for training Iraqi troops, including options to directly train Sunni tribes.
Some elements of the new U.S. approach, which is meant to address frustration by the U.S. government that Iraqi forces are not making progress against the Islamic State and a lack of accountability for millions of dollars of equipment moving into Iraq, are already in play. As first reported by the Washington Examiner, U.S. trainers are now directly distributing weapons to new Iraq Security Forces trainees and getting an Iraqi commander to sign off on them, after months of complaints that the 30,000 M-16 rifles, mortar rounds and other equipment the U.S. has provided to the government of Iraq was going to Shiite militias instead.
“We have now begun delivering equipment directly to Iraqi units who are going through this training,” Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren said.
A critical element of the new plan, however, will be Iraqi government approval of the U.S. directly training Sunni tribes, which so far has not occurred, Warren said.
The U.S. approach would include a vetting process similar to what it has in place as the U.S. attempts to train moderate opposition fighters in Syria, Warren said. Pressed further for details, Warren said, “We are not going to reveal our plan before it’s done.”
The more than 8,000 Iraqi forces who have gone through the five U.S. and coalition-operated sites have not participated in any of the major military operations, such as the victory in Tikrit, the defeat at Ramadi or the ongoing battle for Beiji.
Instead, those majority Shiite forces — which Sunni leaders said have also not been equipped with the U.S.-provided arms, but instead with older AK-47s — have been sent on missions including providing protective escort for an annual Shiite pilgrimage in Baghdad, some limited operations in al-Karma and some prepping duties for a future military operation in Anbar.
Outgoing Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey told reporters traveling with him in Israel that President Obama has asked the Defense Department to “take a look at what we’ve learned over the last eight months in the train-and-equip program and make recommendations to him on whether there are capabilities that we may want to provide to the Iraqis to actually make them more capable,” according to a department news release.
“He’s asked us to look at whether there are other locations where we might establish training sites,” the general added. “He’s asked us to take a look at how we might develop Iraq’s leaders.”
