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WASHINGTON D.C. (January 23, 2008) - Even as al Qaeda in Iraq
ramps up its torture of civilians and begins to employ women and
children in suicide-bombing missions, Iraqi citizens are coming
forward by the thousands to volunteer to help protect their
communities, officials in the region said today.
This trend has made it more difficult for extremists to
reorganize and has restricted their movement, Multinational Force
Iraq spokesman Army Maj. Gen. Kevin J. Bergner said today in a
briefing in Iraq.
"They are changing the atmosphere. It's that courage of the
Iraqi people that is changing the dynamic in such a way that it is
making it more difficult for these extremists to perpetrate the
violence and to terrorize Iraqi citizens," Bergner said.
In recent months, al Qaeda has been increasing its use of women
and children for its deadly suicide missions. On Jan. 20, a child
walked into a tribal leader meeting and detonated a bomb inside a
box of candy, killing himself and four others. Yesterday, in
Baqubah, another young man placed a bomb disguised as a heater in
front of a high school. The explosion killed the boy and another
Iraqi, and wounded some 27 others.
"It is unclear whether that young man was a witting or unwitting
victim of the terrorists. But it is clear that he was another young
casualty of their violence," Bergner said.
Other bombings in the past week included one at a mosque and
another at a funeral.
In operations this month, coalition forces have uncovered
torture houses and rescued two men who said they were tortured for
12 days. They were electricians working to restore power in their
communities, commanders there said.
Still, despite the inherent dangers, Iraqis are signing up to
join local concerned citizen groups across the country, and many
are transitioning into the traditional security forces.
"Even amidst this barbaric violence, or perhaps because of it,
brave Iraqi citizens are stepping forward from all communities to
serve their country," said Bergner. "These brave individuals join
knowing they will face a ruthless enemy, and many have already seen
first-hand the violence of these terrorists in their
neighborhoods."
On Jan. 21, nearly 2,000 former concerned local citizens
graduated from the Numaniyah National Training Center and became
Iraqi National Police officers. Bergner said the class represented
the diversity of Iraq, with different sects, religions, and ethnic
backgrounds.
"The national police are increasingly representative of the rich
diversity of the Iraqi people and are taking important steps to
remove the sectarian influences that have challenged the force over
the last few years," Bergner said.
This comes on the heels of the government of Iraq's pledge to
convert concerned local citizens into the traditional security
force.
"The prime minister and the government of Iraq have committed to
working with the concerned local citizens ... to help those
individuals, those that are qualified, those that are screened and
vetted and capable of serving the Iraqi security forces, to
transition and become legitimate members of the security forces of
Iraq," Bergner said.
Already there are several thousand Iraqi citizens going through
that process, Bergner said. About 2,000 have completed the process
and training and are already serving with the Iraqi police in
western Baghdad. Several thousand others in Anbar province have
already been trained and are now members of the police and army
stationed there.
"There's a commitment by the government of Iraq ... there is a
mechanism in place ... and there is a process that is actually
working to bring those who are qualified ... into the security
forces," Bergner said.
Also, the government of Iraq is working to place those who
aren't transitioning into the security forces into other types of
civilian employment under the ministries of labor, industry and
minerals, and the minister of education, the general said.
"When an Iraqi citizen steps forward and says he wants to help
protect his community, that's an important step that needs to be
understood just in the context of the courage and the commitment to
want to now work to enforce the rule of law in their community,"
Bergner said.
Bergner said that because Iraqis are tired of the extremists'
radical ideals and violence, more are signing up now than a year
ago.
"I think it was very much a part of the Iraqi people's
collective judgment that those terrorists are not what they want in
their neighborhood - their ideology, their violence and their
corrupt oppressive practices, their desire to create a Taliban-like
state here in Iraq is something the Iraqi people reject," Bergner
said. "I think that rejection ... has been a critical element of
improving the trend in security and the path that the Iraqi people
are now on."
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