.Ramadi defended by insurgents turned police
RAMADI, Iraq (AFP) - With their heads wrapped in checkered Arab scarves and warm jackets pulled tight over their blue shirts -- their sole vestige of an official uniform -- Ramadi's police look very much like the insurgents they are fighting.
In fact, many of them used to be insurgents.
"Some of my guys were bad people, but they've now chosen our side," said Major Rafaa, the deputy police chief at a newly established station in the restive western Iraqi city.
"They sure know a lot about the insurgents, though."
The capital of Iraq's vast western province, Ramadi is also regarded by many as the headquarters of the insurgency, with parts of this city of 400,000 actually under the control of rebels -- something these police forces are the key to changing.
The city's police stations were all destroyed in insurgent attacks in 2005, but with the help of the US military some 11 new posts have been established, mainly in the north and west of the city. They are a major part of the effort to reassert control.
"First we build police stations outside of the city, to clean the suburbs, then we push into the city," explained Lieutenant Colonel Jim Lechner, the deputy commander of the US army's 1st Brigade, responsible for Ramadi.
"Some of them are former insurgents -- they were shooting at us just three months ago," admitted Lechner, who still wears the insignia patch of the 3rd Ranger Battalion he served with in the 1993 Mogadishu operation immortalized in the film "Blackhawk Down."
"They may not like Americans, but they hate al-Qaeda," he said.
Ramadi once had few police officers, but with many of the province's powerful tribes banding together against al-Qaeda, a flood of recruits has swelled the police which now count more than 1,000 men in their ranks.
Initially US and Iraqi soldiers will move into areas with the police before eventually, hopefully, turning control of cleared neighborhoods entirely over to them and allowing US forces to leave.
"The only way out of here is teaching these guys," said Captain Stewart McFall, director of Ramadi's Phoenix Academy that gives the recruits their final week of training after a six-week training course in Jordan or Baghdad.
"We have international police liaison officers, Navy Seals and army instructors," said McFall.
"They receive as good training as the Americans -- it's one of the reasons why IPs in this area have been so successful," he added, using the common abbreviation for the Iraqi police.
Behind him, Iraqi cadets too part in a training exercise on searching a vehicle filled with US soldiers.
"You don't have to rough him up, he hasn't done anything," said instructor Sergeant Michael Gavin. "If you find a weapon, that's when you get rough."
In a bizarre reversal of roles, the trainees, some of whom were once insurgents, were able to "arrest" the US soldiers, make them kneel on the ground and search them -- a task they performed with relish.
"I joined up because I've had enough of these terrorist attacks," said 31-year-old recruit Sabah Jassim. "We've been afraid of them for too long, their time is over."
The US soldiers who patrol side by side with these new police say that they are doing a good job -- even if their methods aren't quite what the Americans would use.
"Is this the way we would have done it? No. Did it work? Yes," said Captain Bryce Hansen, whose unit patrols with the police. "We don't want them to do it the American way and it doesn't speed up the process if we do all the work."
In the wet and leaky basement of a water treatment plant turned police station north of Ramadi, half a dozen men sit bound and blindfolded on the floor in this makeshift detention cell.
The room normally used as a holding cell had flooded.
Most of the men said they had no idea why they had been arrested, but didn't complain of bad treatment. One of the detainees, however, was quite frank about his affiliation with an extremist group.
"I want to kill Americans because they occupy my country, and jihad is the will of God," said Awad Mohammed Hassan of the al-Bu Diab tribe, as he tried to peer around his blindfold.
According to the soldiers who work and train with Ramadi's new police force, these policemen are very good at tracking down insurgents and extracting information from them. Their greatest weakness, however, is a lack of support from the Shiite-controlled interior ministry back in Baghdad.
"They don't need us to get the bad people, to get the info from them, they are very good for that," said Sergeant First Class Eugene Perkins, who patrols with the police. "They are not afraid, they go on patrol."
"I have a lot of respect for them, but they need more help from their government and less help from America."
Yahoo
In fact, many of them used to be insurgents.
"Some of my guys were bad people, but they've now chosen our side," said Major Rafaa, the deputy police chief at a newly established station in the restive western Iraqi city.
"They sure know a lot about the insurgents, though."
The capital of Iraq's vast western province, Ramadi is also regarded by many as the headquarters of the insurgency, with parts of this city of 400,000 actually under the control of rebels -- something these police forces are the key to changing.
The city's police stations were all destroyed in insurgent attacks in 2005, but with the help of the US military some 11 new posts have been established, mainly in the north and west of the city. They are a major part of the effort to reassert control.
"First we build police stations outside of the city, to clean the suburbs, then we push into the city," explained Lieutenant Colonel Jim Lechner, the deputy commander of the US army's 1st Brigade, responsible for Ramadi.
"Some of them are former insurgents -- they were shooting at us just three months ago," admitted Lechner, who still wears the insignia patch of the 3rd Ranger Battalion he served with in the 1993 Mogadishu operation immortalized in the film "Blackhawk Down."
"They may not like Americans, but they hate al-Qaeda," he said.
Ramadi once had few police officers, but with many of the province's powerful tribes banding together against al-Qaeda, a flood of recruits has swelled the police which now count more than 1,000 men in their ranks.
Initially US and Iraqi soldiers will move into areas with the police before eventually, hopefully, turning control of cleared neighborhoods entirely over to them and allowing US forces to leave.
"The only way out of here is teaching these guys," said Captain Stewart McFall, director of Ramadi's Phoenix Academy that gives the recruits their final week of training after a six-week training course in Jordan or Baghdad.
"We have international police liaison officers, Navy Seals and army instructors," said McFall.
"They receive as good training as the Americans -- it's one of the reasons why IPs in this area have been so successful," he added, using the common abbreviation for the Iraqi police.
Behind him, Iraqi cadets too part in a training exercise on searching a vehicle filled with US soldiers.
"You don't have to rough him up, he hasn't done anything," said instructor Sergeant Michael Gavin. "If you find a weapon, that's when you get rough."
In a bizarre reversal of roles, the trainees, some of whom were once insurgents, were able to "arrest" the US soldiers, make them kneel on the ground and search them -- a task they performed with relish.
"I joined up because I've had enough of these terrorist attacks," said 31-year-old recruit Sabah Jassim. "We've been afraid of them for too long, their time is over."
The US soldiers who patrol side by side with these new police say that they are doing a good job -- even if their methods aren't quite what the Americans would use.
"Is this the way we would have done it? No. Did it work? Yes," said Captain Bryce Hansen, whose unit patrols with the police. "We don't want them to do it the American way and it doesn't speed up the process if we do all the work."
In the wet and leaky basement of a water treatment plant turned police station north of Ramadi, half a dozen men sit bound and blindfolded on the floor in this makeshift detention cell.
The room normally used as a holding cell had flooded.
Most of the men said they had no idea why they had been arrested, but didn't complain of bad treatment. One of the detainees, however, was quite frank about his affiliation with an extremist group.
"I want to kill Americans because they occupy my country, and jihad is the will of God," said Awad Mohammed Hassan of the al-Bu Diab tribe, as he tried to peer around his blindfold.
According to the soldiers who work and train with Ramadi's new police force, these policemen are very good at tracking down insurgents and extracting information from them. Their greatest weakness, however, is a lack of support from the Shiite-controlled interior ministry back in Baghdad.
"They don't need us to get the bad people, to get the info from them, they are very good for that," said Sergeant First Class Eugene Perkins, who patrols with the police. "They are not afraid, they go on patrol."
"I have a lot of respect for them, but they need more help from their government and less help from America."
Yahoo
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