http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20541041-1702,00.html
4000 Iraqi police killed so far: general >From correspondents in Baghdad October 07, 2006 AROUND 4000 Iraqi policemen have been killed performing their duties over the past two years and another 8000 have been wounded, a US commander has said. Major General Joseph Peterson, who commands the US training teams standing up the fledgling force, maintained that, despite the losses, great strides have been made in preparing the country's security forces. "Since September of 2004, we've lost over 12,000 policemen to casualties, about 4000 of them have been killed," he said. "But yet, on the other hand, Iraqis every day join up to be part of these police forces." Police patrols take the brunt of insurgent bomb attacks, which their unarmored sports utility vehicles are particularly vulnerable to. Peterson said that the eventual goal was a country-wide police force of 188,000, of which 132,000 are already on the streets and performing at a much higher level than before. "If you think about it, a year ago we had a situation where a police station was attacked, and policemen were running out the back door leaving all the equipment," he said. "That does not occur any more. Our policemen are more confident." Police have also been implicated in the work of death squads that is increasingly shredding the country's delicate social fabric, and in many parts of the country, the police are not trusted at all. Last week, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered an entire brigade of the National Police taken off the streets, quarantined and retrained because of suspicions of complicity with death squad attacks. The brigade commander himself, along with one of the battalion commanders, was also relieved from duty for direct involvement in a mass kidnapping. Peterson, however, saw the decision to withdraw the brigade as a positive sign that a process of internal review was working. "I really believe that the minister's decision to withdraw the 8th Brigade from their current mission in Baghdad and to put them in a training status is very, very positive," he said. "And it will grow confidence, not only in the ministry, but also its forces." [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
