Posted on 06/20/2004 7:25:54 AM PDT by Max Combined
BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi announced a dramatic overhaul of the country's defence structure, vowing to deploy all security forces, including the army, in the fight against insurgents.
Allawi said a new command and control structure would streamline the country's defences, with top officials reporting directly to him.
The premier also announced the formation of an elite military unit to do battle with the insurgents and stem unrest which has killed more than 200 people since his interim government was unveiled on June 1.
"I have directed that the immediate priority is to establish an effective Iraqi command and control system to integrate all these forces while I will have ultimate responsibility for national security," Allawi told a news conference.
"The Iraqi military will report to me through the armed forces chief of staff and the ministry of defence. The police and other security forces will be responsible to me through the minister of interior and other respective ministries.
"Our capabilities will enable us to take necessary action against forces of evil and I have laid the foundation for creating a national directorate for internal security."
Allawi said a specialised military force would be formed to launch pre-emptive attacks against the insurgents, many of whom he said were foreigners or supporters of the ousted regime of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).
The premier said the Iraqi Civil Defence Corps (ICDC) would be renamed as the Iraqi National Guard and would come under the command of the army, which would also include "the Iraqi intervention forces and our special forces".
All security forces would be deployed in the war against the insurgents, including large chunks of the army.
"In these difficult times, substantial elements of the army will have to assist in the struggle against internal threats to our national security," he said.
Other security forces would also be mobilised, with border guards deployed with high-tech equipment to keep foreign fighters out and air force planes, so far non-existent, monitoring Iraq (news - web sites)'s oil pipelines.
Allawi said he had drawn up the plan after consulting US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and the British defence ministry's top civil servant Kevin Tebbit.
The premier, whose Iraqi National Accord movement had close links with the US intelligence services, is a security hawk who announced immediately after his appointment that his top priority would be to halt insurgent attacks, particularly those on Iraq's vital oil industry.
Technicians were racing to complete repairs to pipelines serving the southern oilfields around Basra Saturday, after sabotage attacks brought exports to a complete halt last week.
"The work is continuing to repair the two sabotaged pipelines," said Jabbar al-Louaibi, general director of the state-owned Southern Oil Company.
"We cannot give any date for the beginning of pumping."
The US-led coalition had said it hoped to reopen the smaller 42-inch pipeline by Sunday and the bigger 48-inch one by Wednesday.
Iraq's southern terminals have been the main gateway for exports ever since last year's US-led invasion, as insurgents have repeatedly sabotaged the pipeline to Turkey from the northern oilfields around Kirkuk.
In the badlands west of Baghdad, a bastion of the Sunni Muslim insurgency against the US-led occupation, a US marine was killed in action Saturday, the US military revealed.
"A marine assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force was killed in action June 19 in the Al-Anbar province while conducting security and stability operations," a statement said.
At least 18 people were killed by a US air raid on the province's second city of Fallujah Saturday in what commanders said was a "precision" strike on a "known" safehouse used by Islamic militants.
It was the first major US operation in the insurgent stronghold since early May but it was unclear if the marine's death was connected.
The death raised to 616 the number of US soldiers killed in action since last year's invasion, based on figures from the Pentagon (news - web sites).
In the capital, three people were wounded by a roadside bomb early Sunday while a blast wounded a US soldier in the east of the city overnight.
A Sunni tribal chief from Saddam's hometown of Tikrit was gunned down and two of his bodyguards wounded on a roadside south of Kirkuk, an ICDC officer said.
Train them well, pay them well, and equip them well, and turn them lose with no holds barred.
Public execution of convicted terrorists would also go a long way.
Finally someone over there has figured out that they should structure their military like ours - instead of the old Soviet style of force structure. Allawi's American training has paid off.
But what's his plan, he doesn't have a plan, there's no plan(sick dem humor)
Baas...baas... dee plane... dee plane
Should be interesting to see how the libs respond to this. Panties on the head at Abu Ghraib may pale.
"the left will start screaming about how the new regime is no better than the old regime, and the U.S. is morally responsible, blah, blah, blah."
True, but as long as Americans are not dying and the oil flows, no one will care about their screaming.
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