US forces in Iraq shift from joint ops to training

Article from Borneo Bulletin Weekend. Published on Saturday Jul, 31 2010

US soldier stands on an Iraqi military police vehicle at the US army Forward Operating Base (FOB) Constitution west of Baghdad, July 29. AFP

FORWARD OPERATING BASE CONSTITUTION, Iraq (AFP) - American and Iraqi military police slowly comb a strip of dirt road west of Baghdad, looking for tell-tale signs of hidden improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

But while the signs are there, the danger is not, at least on this road: it runs through Forward Operating Base (FOB) Constitution, and the "IEDs" have been planted by US troops as part of a training exercise.

Outside the base, where the IEDs are real, the Iraqi military police and the rest of the country's 6th Division - responsible for still volatile areas from the west of the Baghdad province to parts of the capital - will increasingly be operating alone as US forces draw down.

"We will go from advise, assist and partner to advise, assist and train," said US Army Lieutenant Colonel Robert Rooker, chief of an advisory Stability Transition Team (STT) paired with the 6th Division.

"We will continue to conduct limited partnerships for special skill sets like (explosive ordnance disposal) and military intelligence, but unit partnerships will no longer occur."

Teams such as Rooker's, which is on the same base as 6th Division headquarters, will continue advising and training Iraqi forces following the withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraq next month.

But the US drawdown to a cap of 50,000 troops in Iraq by September 1 will mean far fewer troops will be working with the division than in the past.

The soon-to-depart 4th Stryker Brigade had "an estimated 2,000 troops" working with the 6th Division, said Captain Christopher Ophardt, a brigade spokesman.

After its withdrawal, that number will fall to "130 total personnel, in direct partnership" with the division, according to Rooker, or around 700 including support troops, Ophardt said.