Fox: Iraqi security forces still plagued by sectarianism

Above and Left: Detainees are rounded up by 8th Iraqi Army Division soldiers during 'Operation Black Eagle' in Diwaniyah in April. Under emergency powers, arrest may be made upon suspicion, and no trial need ever be held, nor the detainees ever released.

Some Iraqi police units are still divided along sectarian lines and it will require commitment from the central government to stamp this out, a senior U.S. military spokesman said on Sunday.

"There is a certain element of the Iraqi security forces and in particular the Iraqi police ... that have had shortfalls in terms of loyalty ... to the central government," Rear Admiral Mark Fox, the top military spokesman in Iraq, told a news conference.

Many Americans want their troops to come home and have little confidence in the Iraqi government's ability to stem sectarian bloodshed pushing the country towards civil war.

U.S. commanders say some units are infiltrated by Shi'ite militia, and accounts among ordinary Iraqis of men in police uniforms being involved in sectarian violence are common.

Fox said it would not be easy to win back the trust of Iraqis who regard their police with suspicion.

"It takes time and it takes patience, and I also think it takes commitment on behalf of the Iraqi government," he said.

Read the rest at Reuters/Alternet

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