Iraqi “Nationalization” Program

Montrose Toast ^ | 8 December 2009 | DJ Elliott

[DJ Elliott]

A common misperception about reported plans to increase the strength of the Iraqi Army, Federal Police, and Emergency Response Force [Ministry of Interior Special Forces] is that Iraq cannot afford the extra personnel and that it is not going to happen. The reality is that the personnel are already on the Iraqi Government’s pay-role. These increases are a transfer, retraining and re-designation of paramilitary personnel currently serving in provincial security forces and the Peshmerga.

In the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, this program is called “Nationalization”. Nationalization started in 2007 when the Provincial Police Departments were ordered to separate the trained police from the untrained former army and the untrained tribal levees. Many of former army personnel were trained as SWAT and organized into Emergency Response Units (ERU) and Emergency Services Units (ESU) battalions. The remaining former army and tribal levees were organized into Emergency Battalions (EB).

Not including the Kurdish Regional Guards [Peshmerga], there are 43 ERU/ESUs and 53 EBs (96 battalions) identified by open source reporting in the current provincial emergency forces. There were 12 more battalions but, they have already been Nationalized. There are also at least 12 Peshmerga battalions transferring to the Federal Police and the Emergency Response Force. The Peshmerga are all trained at ERU level. These are minimum numbers planned to transfer from the provincial police commands.

Part of the reason for this program is to remove the provincial police paramilitary forces from the command and funding of the individual provinces to prevent the formation of private armies in the provinces.

[DJ Elliott]

FYI