By John J. Kruzel
American Forces Press Service
June 4, 2008 - Last month marked the fewest attacks in Iraq in four years, a reduction one military official today attributed to improved security tactics and personnel and an increase in tips from Iraqi citizens. The number of bombing attacks involving deadly, armor-piercing charges and homemade explosives decreased in May and continues to fall, Army Brig. Gen. John Campbell, deputy director for regional operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at a Pentagon news conference.
"Both EFP and IED numbers continue to go down; the trend is looking very well," Campbell said, referring to armor-piercing explosively formed penetrators and the more conventional roadside bombs known as improvised explosive devices, the two most common weapons used by militants in Iraq.
Campbell said coalition and Iraqi security forces are more aggressively seeking weapons caches, which often contain completed bombs or the materials necessary to manufacture them. Seizing these weapons and bomb-making ingredients depletes enemy resources, he added.
Meanwhile, coalition forces are placing greater emphasis on training police along Iraq's eastern border with Iran. These border police are the first line of defense against smugglers sneaking EFPs into Iraq, where Iranian-backed "special groups" employ the shaped charges against coalition and Iraqi forces, Campbell said.
Iraqis also are taking seriously the issue of border security, he said, adding that Iraqi officials have held talks about improving checkpoints by fielding more X-ray machines and other sophisticated technology to help stem bomb smuggling.
Campbell acknowledged that enemy fighters tend to lay low or flee sections of the country where coalition and Iraqi forces increase their presence, as in Sadr City, Mosul and Basra, three areas that have received increased security focus recently. But the general did not concede that such tendencies alone explain last month's downtick in bombing attacks.
"It's no secret that if they stay and fight, they don't have a chance," Campbell said of the militants. "Whether they wait a time and come back and pick up those caches -- I can't tell. But just the trends right now for the IEDs and EFPs are continuing to go low."
The general said the ranks of Iraqi security personnel continue to grow, with an overall force of about 559,000 that, alongside coalition forces, increasingly works among the Iraqi population.
"As we've flooded the zones, we've moved out the joint security stations and combat outposts [and have] a 24/7 presence out there. It's a lot harder to put these [bombs] out as we continue to patrol," Campbell said. "I think that combination has helped."
Another element bolstering security is citizens groups, known as "Sons of Iraq," that provide Iraqi and coalition forces with invaluable intelligence about enemy strategy and tactics, the general said.
Officials are planning to recruit some 15,000 Sons of Iraq members to join the nation's security forces. At the same time, they seek to help the roughly 65,000 group members gain technical or other training, or find jobs.
Another key to tamping down violence in Iraq is an empirical understanding of enemy tactics gleaned over the course of deployments, Campbell said.
"I think the final thing is just experience," he said. "The longer you are on the ground, ... you'll see the number of caches found and the number of IEDs and EFPs found much, much higher."
Showing posts with label training police. Show all posts
Showing posts with label training police. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Soldiers, Airmen Help Afghan Police Hone Skills
By Army Sgt. Jessica R. Dahlberg
Special to American Forces Press Service
May 13, 2008 - The sound of idling Humvees resonated in the air as the police mentoring team commander briefed his team on convoy operations. With their orders received, the team mounted up and prepared to roll out, bound for Dandar, a small village in Afghanistan's Parwan province. Army Capt. Mark Moeckli and his team rolled out of Bagram Air Base and embarked on a scenic and treacherous journey over winding mountain roads.
Their task was to instruct the Afghan National Police on hand-to-hand combat, community policing, coordination-cell training, and criminal investigation.
Moeckli's team is made up of servicemembers who were trained in an array of military occupational specialties. With their combined expertise, they make a highly skilled and effective team, ready to tackle the task of teaching the skills Afghan police officers need to remain effective, he said.
The confident commander seemed secure in his team, which began work immediately.
"Some of the Afghan people do bad things, but most of the Afghan people want to see the Taliban gone and their country safe, just like we do," Moeckli said after returning from a meeting with Afghan National Police Col. Masoum Farzaie to discuss the day's objectives.
While the police mentoring team leadership met with the Afghan police colonel, the remaining team members prepared for a class on techniques for physical apprehension and restraint.
"We took it upon ourselves to give these training classes," said Army Capt. Donald Young, an Idaho National Guardsman and police mentoring team leader.
The teams of soldiers and airmen teach a variety of classes based upon the needs of the police in each district, Young explained. The day's classes were taught by the team's airmen, who are charged with training police in two provinces and 17 districts, and who recently taught police officers how to search personnel and control access to resources.
"The training is very good for us," Dawa Jan, an Afghan National Police officer, said. "Our main goal is security, and the classes the Americans give us help prepare us for that goal."
During the hands-on part of the class, Air Force Tech. Sgt. Chris Padron, deployed from Cannon Air Force Base, N.M., coached the police officers and gave them useful tips to help master the techniques.
"I love doing what I do," Padron said. "Teaching the Afghanistan National Police has been a great experience."
To become an Afghan National Police officer, applicants must have a high school education, go through testing and then attend a six-week course at one of the country's four academies. U.S. forces augment their training, helping them to retain the training they received at the academy.
"It is good for my policemen to learn from the Americans," Farazie said. "They have improved greatly since the Americans have come to teach them."
As the police mentoring team travels all over Parwan province, its goal is to give the Afghan National Police training and confidence they'll need to work without the assistance of coalition forces.
"We want to make the Afghanistan National Police sufficient, because in the end, it is not about us at all," Young said. "It is all about them."
(Army Sgt. Jessica R. Dahlberg serves with 382nd Public Affairs Detachment.)
Special to American Forces Press Service
May 13, 2008 - The sound of idling Humvees resonated in the air as the police mentoring team commander briefed his team on convoy operations. With their orders received, the team mounted up and prepared to roll out, bound for Dandar, a small village in Afghanistan's Parwan province. Army Capt. Mark Moeckli and his team rolled out of Bagram Air Base and embarked on a scenic and treacherous journey over winding mountain roads.
Their task was to instruct the Afghan National Police on hand-to-hand combat, community policing, coordination-cell training, and criminal investigation.
Moeckli's team is made up of servicemembers who were trained in an array of military occupational specialties. With their combined expertise, they make a highly skilled and effective team, ready to tackle the task of teaching the skills Afghan police officers need to remain effective, he said.
The confident commander seemed secure in his team, which began work immediately.
"Some of the Afghan people do bad things, but most of the Afghan people want to see the Taliban gone and their country safe, just like we do," Moeckli said after returning from a meeting with Afghan National Police Col. Masoum Farzaie to discuss the day's objectives.
While the police mentoring team leadership met with the Afghan police colonel, the remaining team members prepared for a class on techniques for physical apprehension and restraint.
"We took it upon ourselves to give these training classes," said Army Capt. Donald Young, an Idaho National Guardsman and police mentoring team leader.
The teams of soldiers and airmen teach a variety of classes based upon the needs of the police in each district, Young explained. The day's classes were taught by the team's airmen, who are charged with training police in two provinces and 17 districts, and who recently taught police officers how to search personnel and control access to resources.
"The training is very good for us," Dawa Jan, an Afghan National Police officer, said. "Our main goal is security, and the classes the Americans give us help prepare us for that goal."
During the hands-on part of the class, Air Force Tech. Sgt. Chris Padron, deployed from Cannon Air Force Base, N.M., coached the police officers and gave them useful tips to help master the techniques.
"I love doing what I do," Padron said. "Teaching the Afghanistan National Police has been a great experience."
To become an Afghan National Police officer, applicants must have a high school education, go through testing and then attend a six-week course at one of the country's four academies. U.S. forces augment their training, helping them to retain the training they received at the academy.
"It is good for my policemen to learn from the Americans," Farazie said. "They have improved greatly since the Americans have come to teach them."
As the police mentoring team travels all over Parwan province, its goal is to give the Afghan National Police training and confidence they'll need to work without the assistance of coalition forces.
"We want to make the Afghanistan National Police sufficient, because in the end, it is not about us at all," Young said. "It is all about them."
(Army Sgt. Jessica R. Dahlberg serves with 382nd Public Affairs Detachment.)
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Commander Sees Progress in Afghan Army, Police
By Fred W. Baker III
American Forces Press Service
April 16, 2008 - The Afghan National Army is growing, and the police force is nearly through its rank and pay reforms, helping eventually to put in place competent, professional security forces across the country, a senior commander there said today. "Once the people realize what a professional, noncorrupt, police force looks like, they want some of that," said Army Brig. Gen. Andrew Twomey, deputy commander of Combined Security Transition Command Afghanistan, based at Camp Eggers in Kabul.
His organization's mission is to train, advise and develop the Afghan security forces, both police and army.
The agency's first challenge was that, historically, the Afghan people do not have experience with a competent, professional police force, Twomey said. Before, there were armed militias, tribal groups, or during the Soviet occupation, an arm of an occupying force oppressing the people, he said.
"The whole concept of how people think policemen should behave is warped by those decades," Twomey said.
After the defeat of the Taliban, a large number of people were brought into the police simply by the Afghan government converting the militias.
"[They] were essentially told, 'You are no longer a militia any more. Here's a police uniform. Here's a weapon. You're now a policeman," Twomey said. "That program did provide some local security, but it did not give them the same sort of ethics and norms and professional behavior that we would want out of a police force."
Also, the general said, a long history and culture of police corruption had to be addressed in the system. The policemen were underpaid, and the structure of the force was not well disciplined.
"There was left over an acceptance of the fact that policemen were supposed to ... get money from individuals. So that led to policemen setting up illegal roadblocks, taxing individuals for passage," Twomey said.
He said that although there were once 75,000 policemen on the books, they were neither reliable nor trustworthy.
The first step was to reform the pay system, followed by rank reform that matched both the police force and army. In many instances, because of an over-inflated rank system, some would be reduced in rank, but raised in pay. Once the forces start getting paid a livable wage, about $100 monthly for patrolmen, then standards can be enforced, Twomey said.
"Now you're getting paid a living wage. Now we're going to hold you to a standard. And we're not going to tolerate corrupt behavior," Twomey said.
In many districts, the policemen weren't trained, wrong leadership was in place, and there were no standards or discipline, Twomey said. To remedy the need for districtwide training, Twomey's group began building and training police units -- almost a paramilitary organization -- called the Afghan National Civil Order Police. These battalion-sized organizations are given extra training, extra pay and embedded U.S. forces as supervisors.
With that core of top-notch forces, officials are now going to every district in the country and replacing their local forces temporarily to train them.
It's a program called "focused district development," where all local police are removed from a district and taken for eight weeks of training. They are then reinserted in the district with a police mentor team. Each of the police districts in Afghanistan was assessed and prioritized. It will take about five years to train the more than 350 districts.
"The first reaction was 'Don't do this. We're afraid of these new people," Twomey said. "Then about two weeks later we started getting phone calls from the leadership saying, 'We don't want our old police back. ... We like these new guys.'
"We're now into the second cycle, and we think it's getting a lot of good traction in the public and well as good results on the ground," he said.
In the army, Twomey said, Afghan units are increasingly taking the lead and are capable of combat. Plans are to build the army to 80,000, or 14 brigades and a commando brigade. This month, Afghanistan has just fewer than 60,000 soldiers in the force. They will have 70,000 trained by early fall, and plan to have a full complement of 80,000 soldiers by the summer of 2009, Twomey said.
Within the army's ranks, leaders are starting to see a noncommissioned officer corps take shape, he said. They have built the military education system to including basic training and NCO development schools. Commissioned officers have a candidate school and a four-year military academy that will graduate its first class this winter, Twomey said.
Twomey was quick to point out that his organization is not built around a training center, but rather that its trainers are out advising the Afghan army as they go into conflict. He said his agency also has helps to develop organizational systems at the ministries of Defense and Interior to sustain the force into the future.
Twomey's command now is receiving about 1,000 additional U.S. Marines to help with police training in the south and west of Afghanistan.
"They will provide a tremendous boost to our police training efforts, and we think they'll set the conditions for developing governance in a very critical part of the country," Twomey said.
American Forces Press Service
April 16, 2008 - The Afghan National Army is growing, and the police force is nearly through its rank and pay reforms, helping eventually to put in place competent, professional security forces across the country, a senior commander there said today. "Once the people realize what a professional, noncorrupt, police force looks like, they want some of that," said Army Brig. Gen. Andrew Twomey, deputy commander of Combined Security Transition Command Afghanistan, based at Camp Eggers in Kabul.
His organization's mission is to train, advise and develop the Afghan security forces, both police and army.
The agency's first challenge was that, historically, the Afghan people do not have experience with a competent, professional police force, Twomey said. Before, there were armed militias, tribal groups, or during the Soviet occupation, an arm of an occupying force oppressing the people, he said.
"The whole concept of how people think policemen should behave is warped by those decades," Twomey said.
After the defeat of the Taliban, a large number of people were brought into the police simply by the Afghan government converting the militias.
"[They] were essentially told, 'You are no longer a militia any more. Here's a police uniform. Here's a weapon. You're now a policeman," Twomey said. "That program did provide some local security, but it did not give them the same sort of ethics and norms and professional behavior that we would want out of a police force."
Also, the general said, a long history and culture of police corruption had to be addressed in the system. The policemen were underpaid, and the structure of the force was not well disciplined.
"There was left over an acceptance of the fact that policemen were supposed to ... get money from individuals. So that led to policemen setting up illegal roadblocks, taxing individuals for passage," Twomey said.
He said that although there were once 75,000 policemen on the books, they were neither reliable nor trustworthy.
The first step was to reform the pay system, followed by rank reform that matched both the police force and army. In many instances, because of an over-inflated rank system, some would be reduced in rank, but raised in pay. Once the forces start getting paid a livable wage, about $100 monthly for patrolmen, then standards can be enforced, Twomey said.
"Now you're getting paid a living wage. Now we're going to hold you to a standard. And we're not going to tolerate corrupt behavior," Twomey said.
In many districts, the policemen weren't trained, wrong leadership was in place, and there were no standards or discipline, Twomey said. To remedy the need for districtwide training, Twomey's group began building and training police units -- almost a paramilitary organization -- called the Afghan National Civil Order Police. These battalion-sized organizations are given extra training, extra pay and embedded U.S. forces as supervisors.
With that core of top-notch forces, officials are now going to every district in the country and replacing their local forces temporarily to train them.
It's a program called "focused district development," where all local police are removed from a district and taken for eight weeks of training. They are then reinserted in the district with a police mentor team. Each of the police districts in Afghanistan was assessed and prioritized. It will take about five years to train the more than 350 districts.
"The first reaction was 'Don't do this. We're afraid of these new people," Twomey said. "Then about two weeks later we started getting phone calls from the leadership saying, 'We don't want our old police back. ... We like these new guys.'
"We're now into the second cycle, and we think it's getting a lot of good traction in the public and well as good results on the ground," he said.
In the army, Twomey said, Afghan units are increasingly taking the lead and are capable of combat. Plans are to build the army to 80,000, or 14 brigades and a commando brigade. This month, Afghanistan has just fewer than 60,000 soldiers in the force. They will have 70,000 trained by early fall, and plan to have a full complement of 80,000 soldiers by the summer of 2009, Twomey said.
Within the army's ranks, leaders are starting to see a noncommissioned officer corps take shape, he said. They have built the military education system to including basic training and NCO development schools. Commissioned officers have a candidate school and a four-year military academy that will graduate its first class this winter, Twomey said.
Twomey was quick to point out that his organization is not built around a training center, but rather that its trainers are out advising the Afghan army as they go into conflict. He said his agency also has helps to develop organizational systems at the ministries of Defense and Interior to sustain the force into the future.
Twomey's command now is receiving about 1,000 additional U.S. Marines to help with police training in the south and west of Afghanistan.
"They will provide a tremendous boost to our police training efforts, and we think they'll set the conditions for developing governance in a very critical part of the country," Twomey said.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Afghan Police Trainer Cites Steady Progress
By Seaman William Selby, USN
Special to American Forces Press Service
Jan. 28, 2008 - Coalition forces are making slow but steady progress training the Afghan police force, a top leader in the effort said Jan. 25. Army Col. Edward Kornish, commander of Regional Police Advisory Command, is training police in western Afghanistan, a high-risk area.
In a conference call with online journalists and "bloggers," he credited a variety of new strategic programs and new tactics with bringing progress about.
One such strategy, checkpoint consolidation, is being adopted countrywide, he said.
"We have worked with the Afghans and convinced them that they can have better security and better survivability of their police by consolidating checkpoints and building police stations, which in turn provides more security for the citizens," Kornish explained. "The citizens in the area (in which) we initiated that program have been very positive with their feedback on the success of the program."
While coalition efforts have made progress, officials still face a variety of challenges with the police -- most notably, corruption. But Afghan officials are trying to weed out corrupt police officers and leaders, the colonel noted. "They've eliminated some of the corrupt leaders and replaced them with more honest, more capable leaders," he said.
Another challenge is reforming the pay for the police. Until recently, the police were being paid less than the Afghan army, and they typically face more danger than the army, Kornish said. The coalition has reformed that by working with the Afghan government to raise police salaries, he said.
Kornish also said new coalition training programs begun in December allow leaders to train as a group and the police to train as units in highlighting progress.
"In summary, I would say that although it's challenging, it's also rewarding, and that we've seen good, steady progress the whole time we've been here," he said. "And we think we're making a difference for the people of Afghanistan. They much prefer our company to the Taliban's."
(Navy Seaman William Selby works for the New Media branch of American Forces Information Service.)
Special to American Forces Press Service
Jan. 28, 2008 - Coalition forces are making slow but steady progress training the Afghan police force, a top leader in the effort said Jan. 25. Army Col. Edward Kornish, commander of Regional Police Advisory Command, is training police in western Afghanistan, a high-risk area.
In a conference call with online journalists and "bloggers," he credited a variety of new strategic programs and new tactics with bringing progress about.
One such strategy, checkpoint consolidation, is being adopted countrywide, he said.
"We have worked with the Afghans and convinced them that they can have better security and better survivability of their police by consolidating checkpoints and building police stations, which in turn provides more security for the citizens," Kornish explained. "The citizens in the area (in which) we initiated that program have been very positive with their feedback on the success of the program."
While coalition efforts have made progress, officials still face a variety of challenges with the police -- most notably, corruption. But Afghan officials are trying to weed out corrupt police officers and leaders, the colonel noted. "They've eliminated some of the corrupt leaders and replaced them with more honest, more capable leaders," he said.
Another challenge is reforming the pay for the police. Until recently, the police were being paid less than the Afghan army, and they typically face more danger than the army, Kornish said. The coalition has reformed that by working with the Afghan government to raise police salaries, he said.
Kornish also said new coalition training programs begun in December allow leaders to train as a group and the police to train as units in highlighting progress.
"In summary, I would say that although it's challenging, it's also rewarding, and that we've seen good, steady progress the whole time we've been here," he said. "And we think we're making a difference for the people of Afghanistan. They much prefer our company to the Taliban's."
(Navy Seaman William Selby works for the New Media branch of American Forces Information Service.)
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