Crowe: Iraq may change army deployment rules to allow Sunnis to stay in Anbar

Soldiers of the 1st Iraqi Army Division in Anbar province. The majority of army forces are Shi'ites.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- The Iraqi Ministry of Defense may be changing its deployment rules to attract more Sunnis to the military, a U.S. Marine commander said Friday.

Col. William Crowe, the commander of Regimental Combat team 7 in western Anbar province, told Pentagon reporters the six Iraqi battalions assigned to his area of operations are about 50 percent of their required manpower. The soldiers that are in the battalions are primarily Shiites, recruited from south of Baghdad.

He has had better luck getting Iraqis to join the police forces; there are now 4,000 in western Anbar province. Crowe believes the reason the Sunnis in Anbar province are more likely to sign up for the police is because they want to serve near home.

"In the past, if you joined the Iraqi army, you could serve anywhere in Iraq," Crowe said, meaning Sunni's who join in Anbar province could find themselves in predominantly Shiite Basrah or in the Kurdish north. "It's more appealing to become a policeman because you get to go home at night and stay with your family. If you're in the army, you could be stationed somewhere else."

The Iraqi army has been trying to have ethnically and religiously mixed units as one means of uniting the country. But that rule may change, as the military and police forces are disproportionately Shiite.

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