WASHINGTON (AFP) — Iraq's armed forces will be unable to take over combat duties from US soldiers for up to 18 months, the latest US report on the state of the war-torn nation warned Thursday.
The study, due to be unveiled by the retired former commander of US forces in Europe, Marine General James Jones at a congressional hearing, said Iraqi forces had made "uneven progress" but should show increasing improvement.
And the congressionally mandated assessment also delivered an indictment of Iraqi police forces, saying they were crippled by sectarianism.
The United States has made training and equipping Iraqi forces a key goal in Iraq, seeing their capacity to eventually fight alone as a key barometer of progress and pathway to US troop withdrawals.
The Jones report was the latest in a flurry of progress updates on the Iraq war, in a pivotal 10-day period for US policy in the war-torn nation.
It said Iraqi "military and police have made uneven progress, but that there should be increasing improvement in both their readiness and their capability to provide for the internal security of Iraq."
"With regard to external dangers, the evidence indicates that the Iraqi Security Forces will not be able to secure Iraqi borders against conventional military threats in the near term."
The report said Iraqi military units were "severely deficient in combat support and combat service support capabilities."
But it said the forces, especially the Army, showed "clear evidence" of developing the baseline infrastructures that lead to the successful formation of a national defense capability."
Iraqi forces "will be unable to fulfill their essential security responsibilities independently over the next 12 to 18 months," the report said.
It also identified severe deficiencies in the Iraqi national police force.
"The National Police have proven operationally ineffective, and sectarianism in these units may fundamentally undermine their ability to provide security," the report said.
"The force is not viable in its current form."
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