Troop training for Iraqis finds too few recruits

WASHINGTON – A U.S.-led military training program in Iraq has turned out only 7,000 Iraqi soldiers since last year, far short of the 24,000 that the Pentagon envisioned training by this fall, senior U.S. officials acknowledged Wednesday, the latest sign of trouble in the campaign against Islamic State.

“We simply haven’t received enough recruits” from the Iraqi government, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told a House Armed Services Committee hearing. “We must see a greater commitment from all parts of the Iraqi government.”

Despite the shortfall, Carter said he fully supported the White House decision last week to open a fifth training camp at Taqaddum military base in eastern Anbar province and to send 450 additional U.S. military trainers and support personnel there.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s government criticized Carter last month after he warned that Iraqi troops won’t be able to defeat Islamic State unless they develop a “will to fight.”

His comments reflected growing concern and frustration in the Obama administration after Iraqi military forces abandoned Ramadi, Anbar’s capital, to a much smaller group of Islamic State fighters.

Carter said the White House and Pentagon agreed, after the setback in Ramadi, to enhance the U.S. training program for Iraqi troops and especially to “reinvigorate and expedite the recruitment of Sunni fighters,” including local tribal fighters, to ease the sectarian divide.

The U.S. training at Taqaddum can help draw Sunni Muslims to join the Shiite Muslim-dominated army, a necessary step if Iraq’s forces are to retake Sunni majority cities, such as nearby Ramadi and Fallujah, Carter said.

U.S. strategy “hinges on Sunni fighters, that’s the essential ingredient,” he said.