IRAQ: FIRST RECRUITS TO IRAQ'S FLEDGLING NEW ARMY SHOW OFF THEIR FIGHTING SKILLS AT DESERT CAMP IN KIRKUSH

Record ID: 647031

  • Title: IRAQ: FIRST RECRUITS TO IRAQ'S FLEDGLING NEW ARMY SHOW OFF THEIR FIGHTING SKILLS AT DESERT CAMP IN KIRKUSH
  • Date: 15th September 2003
  • Summary: (EU) KIRKUSH, EASTERN IRAQ, NEAR BORDER WITH IRAN (SEPTEMBER 15, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. LV: NEW IRAQI RECRUITS SITTING AND LISTENING DURING TRAINING BY U.S. FORCES 0.04 2. NEW IRAQI RECRUITS SITTING DOWN 0.07 3. NEW RECRUITS LEARNING TO LOAD GUNS (3 SHOTS) 0.19 4. NEW RECRUITS AT SHOOTING PRACTICE 0.28 5. LONG VIEW OF TARGET 0.34 6. NEW IRAQI RECRUITS CROUCHING DURING TRAINING 0.38 7. REAR VIEW: NEW RECRUITS TAKING SHOOTING POSITION 0.43 8. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) AMJID ABBAS, NEW IRAQI SOLDIER, WHO WAS AN OFFICER IN THE PREVIOUS IRAQI ARMY UNDER SADDAM HUSSEIN AND IS NOW AN ORDINARY SOLDIER SAYING: "When we joined the New Iraqi Army, we were taken aback by the facilities and the good way we were treated and the food and the military equipment that the army might need. It's a big difference from how it was in the old Iraqi army." 1.03 9. VARIOUS OF INSTRUCTORS AND NEW RECRUITS/NEW RECRUITS RUNNING AND CROUCHING DURING TRAINING (4 SHOTS) 1.37 10. VARIOUS OF NEW RECRUITS MARCHING; CU OF FEET MARCHING (4 SHOTS) 2.05 11. (SOUNDBITE) (English) MAJOR GENERAL PAUL D.EATON SAYING: "Yes, you're right - they come from all over the country and all sorts, and the soldiers here are like soldiers the world over, they laugh at the same things, they cry at the same things, they argue about the same football games." 2.22 12. SCU: 'NEW IRAQI ARMY' SIGN ON THE WALL 2.26 13. VARIOUS OF NEW RECRUITS IN UNIFORM IN CLASSROOM TAKING LESSONS (3 SHOTS) 2.41 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 30th September 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: KIRKUSH, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVA27THGSJ2SDIJ3LQB7XSZX5FQZ
  • Story Text: The first recruits to Iraq's fledgling new army have
    showed off their fighting skills at a desert camp.


    The first recruits to Iraq's fledgling new army
    showed off their fighting skills on Monday (September 15)
    at a desert camp where the U.S.-led occupiers hope to turn
    out 35,000 soldiers in a year.

    An initial batch of 750 New Iraqi Army recruits trained
    in the Kirkush camp, near the Iranian border north-east of
    Baghdad, for the benefit of a battalion of journalists,
    invited by the U.S. forces.

    They included ex-members of Saddam Hussein's disbanded
    army and Kurdish Peshmerga rebels who until five months ago
    had been fighting one another.

    Saddam's vast army, thought to number as many as
    400,000 soldiers, collapsed in the weeks after the U.S.-led
    invasion of Iraq in April. Some fought and died, most
    turned and fled.

    Washington decided to formally disband the army and
    hired a U.S. company, Vinnell, to train a new force from
    scratch.

    Risking retribution from anti-American Iraqi guerrillas
    who often target "collaborators", 3,000 volunteers have
    signed up to follow suit at three recruitment centres in
    Baghdad, Basra in the south, and Mosul in the north, U.S.

    officers said.

    Senior officers from Saddam's army are excluded from
    the new army, but two-thirds of the recruits are former
    soldiers.

    U.S., British and Australian commanders in charge of
    rebuilding Iraq's army want to create 27 battalions within
    a year then hand over operations to a new Iraqi government.

    All the new recruits will come through Kirkush, a large
    half-built garrison for the old army set in arid, sandy
    plains that are good for training but tough to live in.

    Once a full division is ready next year, it will be
    attached first to the U.S. Fourth Infantry Division,
    currently based in Saddam's home town Tikrit, and given
    limited responsibilities like border patrols and guarding
    bases.

    The new recruits are due to graduate in October and
    were on their best behaviour on Monday.

    "When we joined the New Iraqi Army, we were taken
    aback by the facilities and the good way we were treated
    and the food and the military equipment that the army might
    need. Its a big difference from how it was in the old Iraqi
    army," said Amjid Abbas, a low ranking soldier now but once
    an officer in Saddam's army.

    One unit cracked off AK47's on a firing range, while
    another simulated a combat over mounds of sand.

    U.S. and British commanders say most of them already
    know how to fight but need to be taught principles of human
    rights and democracy.

    As Lieutenant-Colonel Ray Combs said, the foreign
    soldiers "show them the philosophy we use in a free
    society, that armies exist to serve their own people."
    At a news conference at the training camp Major General
    Paul D.Eaton said the Iraqi soldiers were like any other
    soldiers.

    "Yes you're right they come from all over the country
    and all sorts and the soldiers here are like soldiers the
    world over, they laugh at the same things they cry at the
    same things they argue about the same football games," he
    said.

    In the classroom, a group of about 100 were being
    taught about fitness, health and hygiene.

    But not all is perfect in the New Iraqi Army.

    Away from the commanders, some of the
    70-U.S.-dollars-a-month recruits and lower-level trainers
    told of indiscipline and desertion. Of an initial 1,000,
    250 have given up and gone home, they said.

    And one trainer said they were always fighting among
    themselves, the Kurds against the Arabs.


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