U.S. troops shift focus of training to special police

WASHINGTON — U.S. troops in Baghdad will increasingly focus on training the Shiite-dominated special police forces, a top U.S. commander in Iraq said Friday, reflecting efforts to quell ongoing friction among the country's ethnic factions.

Maj. Gen. William Webster Jr., commander of coalition forces in Baghdad, said that in the coming months coalition forces "will be stepping back somewhat from the Iraqi army forces and assisting in greater numbers the Iraqi special police in Baghdad."

Webster said the police training will focus in part on handling detainees.

"It's not specifically designed to prevent them from abusing detainees, but that is certainly part of our goal, just as we helped train the Iraqi army on working with detainees within the rule of law," he said.

He said the Iraqi detention facilities under the control of Iraq's Interior Ministry are still crowded, and the detainees, who are largely Sunni Arabs, show signs of injuries from past abuse. But he said the latest series of inspections show no signs of recent abuse.

The United States has said it would not hand over prisoners to Iraqi officials until they improve conditions in the prison system, which has seen widespread reports of abuse.

Fueling the violence are divisions among Shiites, Arab Sunnis and ethnic Kurds, who in some cases emphasize loyalty to tribe and religion over support for a central government. And concerns that Iraq could plunge into a civil war are heightened by reports of Shiite-led militias abusing Sunnis.

Webster said that setting aside those loyalties will take time. He said the training focus can shift to the police because the Iraqi army is growing in size and becoming better able to operate independently of U.S. forces.

Iraqi police control just 10 percent of Baghdad, he said, adding that one 10-member U.S. team is assigned to each Iraqi special police battalion, which means about 50 U.S. troops are working with each of the special police brigades. Generally, there are about 800 soldiers in a battalion and about 3,500 in a brigade.

"The plan, over the next several months, is to increase those numbers, so that we can spend more time with them to plan, train, coach, coordinate with and conduct operations with them," Webster said.