April 03, 2008	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 25, 1429

BAGHDAD, April 2: Iraqi forces need to be strengthened and some troops are “not up to the task”, the US said on Wednesday, after police and army units failed to crush Shia militiamen despite a weeklong crackdown in Basra.

“There is still much more work to do in developing and strengthening the capabilities of the Iraqi security forces,” US military spokesman General Kevin Bergner told a news conference in Baghdad.

“Overall, the majority of the Iraqi security forces performed their mission. Some were not up to the task and the government of Iraq is taking the necessary action in those cases,” Bergner said.

His comments came as a top Iraqi military commander General Abdul Karim Khalaf asserted that Iraqi forces were in full control of Basra after intense battles since March 25 that killed hundreds of people.

“We are continuing to disarm (militiamen), our forces are deployed in all Basra’s streets and regions,” Khalaf said. “Basra is under the control of our forces.” The offensive against the militias in Basra, mostly from the Mahdi Army of powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, quickly set off a wave of clashes in other Shiite areas of Iraq in which at least 461 people were killed and more than 1,100 wounded.

The clashes began subsiding on Sunday after Sadr pulled his fighters off the streets following a deal with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who had personally directed the crackdown.

The deal left the militiamen with their weapons intact, and with some analysts saying the assaults had strengthened Sadr’s hand and left Maliki politically battered.

Maliki on Tuesday hailed the crackdown as a success which “achieved the aim of imposing law in the city and restoring normalcy.” Sheikh Ali al-Saedi, an official in the Sadr office in Basra, complained that assaults on Mahdi Army fighters were continuing despite assurances by Maliki that these would be halted.

Residents of the southern oil hub, however, said that in general the streets were calm but that they urgently needed basic services restored in the city of 1.6 million.

Bergner said the Iraqi authorities were now engaged in a “comprehensive effort” to meet humanitarian needs and to restore services.

“It will take some time for the dust to settle and many challenges remain,”he said.

These include improving the security forces’ logistical and transport capabilities, their planning, and their coordination with civil authorities.

Bergner said the very fact the security services carried out the operation in Basra at all — with only limited involvement of US and British forces — was in itself a positive development.

“This is an instance where the government of Iraq asserted itself, made a decision on the deployment of forces and took a very difficult position.

“The fact that it took such a decision and remained committed to it is significant and is a reflection of the seriousness with which they take their responsibilities of security,” he added.

One of the achievements of the operation, the US general said, was the takeover by the Iraqi military of security at Basra’s port, Um Qsar, which was under the control of members of the Fadhila party and widely used by smugglers tapping into Basra’s rich oil deposits.

“In the last couple of days the Iraqi security forces have gone to the port facility in Basra to re-establish legitimate control and authority,” Bergner said.

The general said the spike in violence in Baghdad which occurred as the Basra clashes began raging “was a case where criminals attempted to undermine the legitimate authority of the government by raising fear, division and distrust,” he said.

“This violence included indirect fire (mortar and rocket) attacks fuelled by Iranian-backed special groups criminals.” A US military statement, meanwhile, said Iraq is expected to buy more than $590 million military equipment, including weapons and ammunition, in 2008.

Iraqi security officials said that at least 15 people were killed in insurgent violence, mostly linked to Al Qaeda, on Wednesday.

Three of them were killed and 13 other people wounded, including a cameraman with Iraq’s independent Al-Diyar satellite television, in a roadside bombing in Baghdad, the sources said.

Al-Diyar cameraman Maytham Ibrahim survived but lost a leg, the station’s news editor Imed al-Abadi said.—AFP