WASHINGTON
The Iraqi government is having difficulty recruiting troops for a U.S. training program, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday.
“I don’t know specifically why the Iraqis have had difficulty in providing more trainees," said Col. Steve Warren, while adding that the U.S. would like to integrate Sunni tribal troops into the Iraqi security apparatus to help solve the problem.
A U.S. training camp at the Al-Assad airbase south west of Baghdad is currently empty because recruits there were removed from training in order to provide security to a recent pilgrimage in the country, Warren said.
Warren’s comments follow President Barack Obama's remarks on Monday during the G7 summit in Germany where he said the U.S. is yet to have a complete strategy for training Iraqi forces as "it requires commitments on the part of the Iraqis."
Obama also said the U.S. is reviewing a range of plans for how to increase the number of trained Iraqi forces and he expects to receive a plan from the Pentagon.
A plan is being worked on by the Pentagon to begin integrating Sunni tribal fighters into the Iraqi security, Warren said, but he cautioned that while having trainers may be one issue, the other is having enough forces to be trained – a problem the Iraqi government needs to solve.
According to the Pentagon, the U.S. has completed the training of about 8,900 Iraqi troops while 3,000 others are currently under training.
Some of the trained forces have participated in operations in al-Karma, northern Fallujah, in Samara, Saladdin province and have been deployed in the Peshmerga flats – the 1,200-kilometer (750-mile) long four lines of troops to the north.
He also said that many in the program are preparing for future operations in Anbar province.
A State Department spokesman said there is a lot of interest in participating in the training program if it is switched from the Iraqi army to popular mobilization forces.
"There are Sunni volunteers currently being trained by the Iraqis. About 1,000 Sunni fighters were inducted into the popular mobilization forces at the end of May," said Jeff Rathke.
The U.S. decided to train Iraqi troops last August after the Daesh terror group plunged into the country and captured large swath of territory.
