WASHINGTON, Feb 4 (AFP) - Iraqi security forces have faced a major challenge in retaining troops in units deployed in Mosul and Sunni areas of Iraq, due to insurgent attacks, but they have since "turned a corner," a top US general said Friday.
Substantial losses due to "unauthorized absences" were acknowledged Thursday by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who told members of Congress that Iraqi army units, on average, are only 60 percent manned.
Lieutenant General David Petraeus, who heads a multinational effort to train the Iraqi forces, said average manning levels for all 90 Iraqi police and military battalions will be up to 80 percent after 3,500 "replacement" soldiers complete training this week.
"I cannot give you a number on the desertion rate," he said in a press conference with Pentagon reporters via video link from Baghdad.
But he said: "It clearly was a huge challenge, particularly in the Sunni areas and in the area of Nineveh province, to a couple of regular battalions," he said, noting that one of the battalions "suffered enormously."
"This is an area where the insurgents were actually cutting the heads off soldiers that were trying to come back from leave and so forth," he said.
"It was a real challenge during that time, but we've turned a corner with that. And as I said, a substantial number of soldiers are heading to those units," he said.
Building up the Iraqi security forces is the lynchpin of a US strategy to create conditions that would allow a reduction in US force levels in Iraq.
Administration officials, however, have refused to say how long it will take.
02/04/2005 18:20 GMT - AFP