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Iraqi official, U.S. commanders dispute report's stance

A recommendation to scrap Iraq's police force and start over falls flat.

BAGHDAD - An Iraqi government adviser on Thursday disputed a U.S. report critical of the country's security forces, saying the independent assessment was unacceptable interference in internal affairs.

Yassin Majid, an adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said, "It is not the duty of the independent committee to ask for changes at the Interior Ministry, especially when it comes to security apparatus."

His comments came a day after a study led by retired U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James Jones found that Iraq's security forces will be unable to take control of the country in the next 18 months and that Baghdad's national police force is so rife with corruption it should be scrapped entirely.

Senior U.S. military commanders in Iraq also rejected the recommendation, saying that despite sectarian influences the force is improving and that removing it would create dangerous security vacuums in key regions. "We are way past the point where we just fire everyone and start over," said Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, who commands U.S. military forces in a large swath of central Iraq.

The report was expected to factor heavily into Congress' debate on the war. Republicans see success by the Iraqi forces as critical to bringing U.S. troops home, while an increasing number of Democrats say the United States. should stop training and equipping such units altogether.

growing troops: The number of U.S. troops in Iraq has climbed to a record high of 168,000 and is moving toward a peak of 172,000 in the coming weeks - a level that could extend into December, a senior military official said Thursday. Maj. Gen. Richard Sherlock, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the increase is the result of troops rotations, as several brigades overlap while they move in and out of the war zone.

Not enough doctors: Iraq only has a third of the doctors it needs because killings and kidnappings of the medical professionals prompted many to leave the country, its military surgeon general said Thursday. Brig. Gen. Samir Abdullah Hassan said the military alone has only about a fourth of the physicians it needs - there are 148 and the need is for 600 to 700, he said.

14 die in clash: U.S. and Iraqi troops backed by attack aircraft clashed with suspected Shiite militiamen before dawn Thursday in Baghdad, bombing houses and battling more than a dozen snipers on rooftops. Police said at least 14 people were killed.

Information from the Association Press and the Washington Post was used in this report.

[Last modified September 6, 2007, 23:55:35]