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General tries to build new Iraqi army

Jan-23-2005 » Filed Under: TF Olympia

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By Trudy Rubin

MOSUL, Iraq - Gen. David Petraeus is flying in a C-130 transport plane back to the place he once made into a model of U.S.-Iraqi cooperation.

Iraq's third-largest city warmed to Petraeus because he reached out to Sunni Arab leaders during a yearlong assignment as commander of the 101st Airborne. [...]

First stop as he blitzes the city: a briefing on the security outlook for elections - dicey.

U.S. forces were beefed up in Mosul after the police fled, and several battalions of Iraqi troops also have been moved in. A couple of these are composed of Kurds, who are good fighters, but their presence fuels Sunni fears that Kurds want to take over the city.

Next, we travel through Mosul inside heavily armored Stryker vehicles where the only view of city streets is on the TV monitor below the gunner's turret.

We visit one of the Interior Ministry's enthusiastic new police commando units composed of former Iraqi army special forces. They may be best suited to fighting the insurgents, but they can't do it alone.

The Stryker speeds us to the Al-Kindi base, where a new Iraqi division headquarters was set up three months ago and is being fleshed out. Fighters from one of the Kurdish battalions tell me, with graphic motions: "Kurds good, Arabs not good."


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