Reply #15: Rumsfeld touts U.S.-trained Iraqi troops

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Rumsfeld touts U.S.-trained Iraqi troops
Sat Oct 1, 2005 7:29 AM BST


By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Friday said U.S.-trained Iraqi security forces were improving daily, downplaying the fact that the number of Iraqi battalions able to fight without U.S. help had melted to one.

"There are an awful lot of people chasing the wrong rabbit here, it seems to me," Rumsfeld told reporters at the Pentagon, when asked about the number of Iraqi battalions that can operate independently.

"The important fact is ... that every day, every week, every month the Iraqi security forces are larger, they're better equipped, they're better trained and they're more experienced. And that is the central fact," Rumsfeld said.

Pentagon officials have said that creating Iraqi security forces able to defend their own country is a prerequisite to an eventual withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. But there are persistent questions about the quality of these forces and the degree to which they have been infiltrated by insurgents.

Rumsfeld said there are 194,000 U.S.-trained Iraqi army troops and police.


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http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-10-01T062907Z_01_MOL123282_RTRUKOC_0_UK-IRAQ-USA-RUMSFELD.xml&archived=False