The police have become a formidable fighting unit in the weeks leading up to Iraq’s national elections. New recruits have replaced the shaky provisional teams that left the ranks due to a lack of training, inadequate weaponry, and uneasiness about the future of their country.

Today, Iraqi police academies graduate new officers at a rate of 6,000 per month to add to the 80,000 police already on the streets of Iraq. Currently, there are 40,000 more cadets between the ages of 20 to 35 preparing to graduate from regional academies. Eventually, more than half of all the security forces in Iraq will be made up of police officers.

In the field, Iraqi police have made strong headway against the insurgency. Police have arrested various leaders of the insurgency, including a top aide to Iraqi Al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and the mastermind who formed an Islamic militant organization responsible for several attacks against the Iraqi National Guard. The police have also secured countless weapon caches and collected secret data from Insurgents by conducting raids throughout the cities. In preparation to conduct special operations without assistance, some Iraqi police are trained to conduct more complex missions.

156 police officers have graduated from the Provincial SWAT (special weapons and tactics) training course. These officers have special weapons training and preparation in dynamic entries, mechanical breaching, diversionary strategies, sniper training and offensive driving skills. As a rapid response unit, the Provincial SWAT teams are specialists in high-risk arrest and hostage rescue operations.

The new Iraqi police are better equipped with 69 million rounds of ammunition and 148 million rounds more in storage; 70,000 pistols; 49,000 AK-47s; 1,700 PKM heavy machine guns and 5,700 vehicles. Iraqi police have body armor, protective head gear and radios.

Though morale is high and the police are well-trained and equipped, they are still regularly targeted by Insurgents. In the last three months of 2004, more than a thousand police officers and cadets were killed or seriously wounded in the line of duty.
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The Iraqi Armed forces in Tikrit are the model for all of Iraq's soldiers. While there is a definitive frustration at the pace of training of Iraq's 86 army battalions, the area surrounding Saddam's hometown is peppered with highly skilled, fully committed Iraqi forces. The Tikrit battalion of 1, 246 Iraqis are commanded by Col. Hassan Dakhel, a former leader in Saddam Hussein's army.

Though the preparation of Iraqi army and police forces has gone better in Tikrit than most other regions, the lack of heavy equipment remains a hard obstacle to overcome. There is now enough basic equipment for each man, but to function as a proper army, the force needs armored vehicles for the desert terrain, artillery, mortars, and air coverage. Still, the army has come a long way. At one time, the Iraqi Army battalion of 1,000 men had equipment for only 500 troops. After a five-day shift, each soldier handed over weapon, helmet, and ammo pouch to the next soldier coming on duty. Remarkably, the lack of resources only made the Iraqis more determined to win.

Iraqi troops excel at weapons marksmanship, platoon-level operations, securing fixed site locations, and reacting quickly to diverse threats as a unified force. The Tikrit division of the army successfully secured their local voter polling sites and the provincial ballot Polling Distribution Site during elections. Everyday, Iraqis secure convoy routes, perform cordon and knock operations, obtain information about insurgent activities, and engage in urban warfare.

The ultimate success in Iraq hinges on the Iraqi Army gaining the trust of their countrymen, and the people of Tikrit welcome the protection that comes from soldiers they trust. The support and respect for the Iraqi Army continues to gain momentum, as does the Iraqi Army's determination to fight for democracy at all costs.
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Enemy Forces

There are dozens of insurgent groups carrying out attacks against coalition forces in Iraq: rebel forces consisting of regime loyalists, nationalistic groups opposed to the US presence, formerly suppressed Islamists, a variety of jihaddists groups and foreign militias. It is often difficult to separate the various factions as many are closely-aligned al Qaeda groups led by master terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, or even possibly the same group operating under various names.
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