BAGHDAD — A top U.S. military commander in Iraq called for more Iraqi troops to police troubled areas Sunday, a day in which at least 26 people were killed in attacks on civilians and police across the nation.
Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division, said the shortage of Iraqi troops was forcing him and other commanders to recruit residents to police their neighborhoods.
"We need to add confident, capable Iraqi forces to maintain security," he said. "They are getting better every day. But they are just not enough. There has to be aggressive recruiting to get more Iraqi soldiers and police on the rolls, properly trained and properly equipped."
Last week, the Bush administration gave Congress a status report on Iraq in which the security forces received poor marks.
The report notes that the Iraqi government has established joint U.S.-Iraqi security stations and sent more soldiers into the capital, both deemed measures of progress. But, the report says, Iraqi security forces have struggled to meet the equally important benchmarks of working independently and free of sectarian influences.
According to the report, the number of Iraqi soldiers operating independently has decreased since January.
Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last week that the Pentagon's next Iraq strategy review, due in September, might include a recommendation to attach more U.S. troops to Iraqi units as advisors.
On Sunday, Lynch, who oversees troops south of Baghdad and in the southern provinces of Babil, Karbala and Najaf, said he needed to increase Iraqi security forces by a third, with seven more Iraqi army battalions and five more Iraqi police units, to secure the area. An Iraqi army battalion can include 500 to more than 700 soldiers.
The Iraqi security forces comprise about 349,000 soldiers and police officers, said Navy Rear Adm. Mark Fox, a military spokesman. At a news conference Sunday in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, Fox said that in addition to the personnel shortage, the Iraqi forces, particularly police, also faced endemic corruption among their ranks and a "shortfall of loyalty."
Lynch emphasized that it was unrealistic to expect that Iraq could build up its army and police overnight. He predicted it would take until autumn to clear militant strongholds in the area under his command, where 15,000 U.S. troops are assigned, and a "significant amount of time" to secure the region. Lynch said he expected to start handing over the area to Iraqi security forces in spring.
