Home » Archives » "Iraqi forces go after lion's share of responsibility"

Iraqi forces go after lion's share of responsibility

May- 7-2006 » Filed Under: TF Band of Brothers

Link to Full Article
By Monte Morin, Stars and Stripes

MOSUL, Iraq — The sun had barely risen above the concrete blast walls of police headquarters Thursday and Col. Abedul al-Kareem Mohammed Khalaf was already logging the day’s first terrorist arrest and chastising three young lieutenants for letting another evil-doer escape.

The lieutenants and a group of patrolmen had shot it out with an insurgent the day before, during a massive, ongoing sweep of Mosul by Iraqi forces. Yet after firing off all of their ammunition, the lawmen had no dead or captured insurgents.

Instead, they had a bunch of angry business owners whose buildings were damaged in the gunbattle. And the officers told one patrolman’s family that he had been killed in the shootout, when in fact he was only wounded in the leg.

“I want to fire you,” an angry Khalaf told the men.

The exchange was just one of many that has earned Khalaf the reputation as being a tough and demanding commander of Mosul’s police department in the new Iraq.

As the Iraqi police chief of operations for Nineveh province, Khalaf helped direct more than 1,500 Iraqi police and army units during the massive cordon-and -search operation under way in Mosul.

The operation, dubbed Operation Lion’s Hunt and planned and executed entirely by Iraqi security forces, marks a turnaround from 18 months ago, when Iraqi police collapsed before an insurgent onslaught. Lion’s Hunt, U.S. advisers say, is proof that local police are now poised to take full responsibility for the city’s security.

“The million dollar question is — how much longer do they need our support to function here,” said Master Sgt. John Ladik, 38, of the Hanau, Germany-based 709th Military Police Battalion, one of the U.S. Army units advising the Iraqi police.

The operation was conceived as part pre-emptive strike against insurgents, part public relations campaign and part joint maneuver training with the Iraqi army. Since the operation kicked off April 30, insurgent attacks in the city have dropped markedly.


Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by a site administrator before your comment will appear. We appreciate your patience.)

Advertisements