Big Lizards:Blog:Entry “Iraqi Troops Take Over”

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September 25, 2005

Iraqi Troops Take Over

Hatched by Sachi

A round up of good Iraq news posted on other blog sites.

It is hard to believe, I know. But there is tremendous progress being made in Iraq. The American military has trained up to 200,000 Iraqi troops, much more and sooner than expected; as Captain Ed noted, a large number of these Iraqi troops now have battlefield experience. It is even possible we can significantly reduce the number of forces in Iraq by early spring next year.

After bombing two bridges near the Syrian border and severely damaging the infrastructure of terrorists in Najaf, the US military handed over the city’s security to Iraqi forces. In the Belmont Club, Wretchard quotes a September 6th story in the Washington Post about the Najaf battle:

The U.S. military pulled hundreds of troops out of the south city of Najaf on Tuesday, transferring security duties to Iraqi forces and sticking to a schedule that the United States hopes will allow the withdrawal of tens of thousands of its forces by early spring…Other cities in the heavily Shiite south, and in the Kurdish north, are likely to be next.

The Tal-Afar operation was conducted by a combined coalition of Iraqi and American forces. However, it was the 5000 Iraqi troops who conducted house-to-house searches and arrested over 200 terrorists. According to Iraqi officials, 141 rebel fighters were killed as well. In a different post, Wretchard quotes from the Telegraph:

Iraq's prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, announced the start of the offensive in a statement yesterday morning.

"At 2am today, acting on my orders, Iraqi forces commenced an operation to remove all remaining terrorist elements from the city of Tel Afar," he said. "These forces are operating with support from the Multinational Force."

The readiness of Iraqi troops may have overly encouraged the Iraqi president. From the Washington Post (hat tip Captain’s Quarters):

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said in an interview yesterday that the United States could withdraw as many as 50,000 troops by the end of the year, declaring there are enough Iraqi forces trained and ready to begin assuming control in cities throughout the country.

Of course this does not mean we have any kind of timetable for withdrawal. But it is good to know we are in fact getting ready for it.

The successful operation of Tal-Afar offensive was felt in other parts of Iraq. The Iraq Defense ministry is considering sending Iraqi troops to several Iraqi cities including Samarra, according to Iraq the Model. During a negotiation with Sunni delegate from Samarra, the defense minister had stated that Iraqi troops’ success is encouraging many youths to join the Iraqi Defense Force. He encouraged Sunnis to cooperate with the government as well. In fact, with the memory of Tal-Afar being still fresh in mind, Sunni tribes are peacefully negotiating with the IDF, according to Omar of Iraq the Model.

Iraqi troops are slowly but surely taking charge of Iraqi security; Bush’s nation building concept may well be working here.

Hatched by Sachi on this day, September 25, 2005, at the time of 4:43 AM

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» Leftist Agenda is Clear from Isaac Schrödinger
The first commenter of this post at Big Lizards:The anti-war left just demands immediate exodus of US troops, but nothing [Read More]

Tracked on September 25, 2005 9:16 PM

» Slowly But Surely from Big Lizards
I posted earlier that Iraqi troops are slowly but surely taking over Iraq's security, one city at the time. The latest example is in and around Karbala, at Forward Operating Base Lima, where Coalition forces and the Greater Iraqi Army... [Read More]

Tracked on September 30, 2005 5:08 PM

Comments

The following hissed in response by: RBMN

Have you ever noticed that the Cindy-Sheehan-types never talk about speeding up the training of Iraqi troops? Never positively about it. The anti-war left just demands immediate exodus of US troops, but nothing that might actually make it happen sooner naturally. Judging by their actions, Iraqi democracy is the last thing they want. The last thing. They want the same thing Zarqawi wants, but for a different reason. The al-Qaeda undermining of, and eventual overthrow of, Iraqi democracy would certainly ruin George W. Bush's legacy and any political coattails he had, and nothing else matters to America's moonbat left. Nothing. Destroying Bush is Alpha and Omega.

The above hissed in response by: RBMN at September 25, 2005 10:45 AM