Report: Iraqi soldiers face Baghdad rotations of only 3 months

Above: A platoon sergeant with Company A, 325th Special Troops Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, pulls security next to a soldier from the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division during a morning clearing operation in Baghdad’s Adhamiyah District on May 23

As the U.S. military sends more troops into Baghdad for stays of 15 months or longer, some Iraqi army soldiers participating in the same counterinsurgency operation are serving under a rotation schedule officially lasting just three months, according to senior officers at the Pentagon and Multi-National Force-Iraq.

Some military experts have said that the 90-day Iraqi army tours of duty are not long enough for the units to provide adequate help in the Baghdad buildup operation. The practice also complicates the task of ensuring that enough experienced Iraqi units will be available to replace U.S. brigades in the capital as they are drawn down. U.S. officials say that the Iraqi units involved in the operation are not fully staffed, a problem found throughout the Iraqi army...

Although the tours of some of the Iraqi units brought to Baghdad from elsewhere in the country have been extended, the first Iraqi troop rotation from the capital was completed in March and a second will be completed by mid-June.

Read the rest at the Washington Post

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