MAHMOUDIYA, IRAQ — The 10 rows of men stood ramrod straight, their right hands saluting in unison, their left arms stiffly at their sides, save for one in a plaster cast and sling.
Then, in a burst of collective energy, they raced out the door, crossed a vast field and hurled themselves onto an obstacle course of swinging ropes, muddy ditches, catwalks and towering walls.
Welcome to the new Iraqi army, or at least a tiny portion of it that U.S. and Iraqi officials hope will serve as a model for the rest. The mid-December event was a graduation at the new Iraqi Army Commando Course, and it provided a look at the progress being made and the challenges still facing the 160,000-strong army.
On the plus side, 50 soldiers made the cut. On the minus side, 106 didn't. Still, the pass rate was better than for four previous commando classes, which graduated about 35 each.
"We're ready for anything. We'll demolish the enemy with a big fist!" declared newly minted commando Ziad Khalaf Hamza, 20, an amber-eyed judo expert.
Perhaps no Iraqi institution faces greater scrutiny nowadays than the security forces, which the U.S. and British militaries are counting on to maintain recent gains officials have cited.
Britain last month signed over responsibility for security in Basra, the last of the four provinces under British control to be handed over to Iraqis. The U.S. military has begun pulling out the five extra combat brigades it deployed in Iraq last year, which will bring the American troop level to about 134,000 by the middle of the year, down from more than 160,000.
Yet relying on Iraqi security forces has proved risky. In February, when Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr. handed off command of U.S. troops in Iraq to Gen. David H. Petraeus, he predicted that Iraqi forces would be in charge of security nationwide by fall.
Casey's time in Iraq was marked by a push to bring down the U.S. troop level and speed the transfer of responsibilities to the Iraqi government. But insurgents took advantage of the less experienced Iraqi forces to ramp up violence, which led President Bush to deploy the additional brigades.
Attacks on civilians and coalition forces have dropped to their lowest level in more than two years, according to Army Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the day-to-day commander of U.S. troops in Iraq. Opinions vary, though, on how ready Iraqi troops are to take charge.
