Jordan Times
Friday, January 14, 2005
More than 1,400 Iraqi police recruits complete training
AMMAN (JT) — The largest group so far of Iraqi police recruits graduated on Thursday from the Jordan International Police Training Centre in Muwaqqar, an official said.
The 1,440 recruits were the 12th group to complete the six-week course since training began in November 2003, said an official at the centre, speaking on condition of anonymity, the Associated Press reported.
The graduation ceremony was attended by Iraq's higher coordinator for police affairs, Maj. Gen. Waleed Younis, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.
The training at the centre, 35 kilometres east of Amman, includes use of firearms, riot control, self-defence and first aid.
The instructors come from 15 countries including the United States, Britain, Canada and Jordan. The US-funded training programme stems from an agreement concluded last year between the Kingdom and the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ran Iraq until the US-led occupation administration handed sovereignty over to an interim Iraqi government in June. Under the agreement, nearly 32,000 Iraqi police recruits will be trained in the Kingdom over two years. Almost 10,000 cadets and officers so far have received training and returned home to restore security and stability in their war-ravaged country. Iraqi police have become frequent targets of insurgents fighting the US-led multinational forces in Iraq and the American-backed government in Baghdad. Hundreds have been killed in attacks on police stations, recruitment centres and convoys in an attempt to scare Iraqis away from joining the new police forces and undermine the new government's efforts to restore security, AP said. The Kingdom is also training Iraqi soldiers at the Zarqa Military College. About 1,650 soldiers, including 50 women, have graduated from that programme, which began last March. Also, a first batch of eight Iraqi pilots and five engineers completed a two-month training course last July as part of the Iraqi air force's rebuilding.