LOC16:42
13:42 GMT
By Alaa' Al--Howeijel
BAGHDAD, Feb 17 (KUNA) -- The US army is training Iraqi law and order
forces to use Western weapons rather than Soviet-made ones as it was the case
under the former regime of the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
The change has been gradual with some Iraqi soldiers gradually being
trained to use US-made automatic rifles instead of the age-old Russian
Klashnikov ones.
The same pattern was used with regard to armored cars, according to a US
report published on Sunday.
"US training has replaced the Soviet one (in Iraq)," the report said.
Other training has targeted the Iraqi infantry and artillery forces, which
were trained on US and Western made equipment instead of soviet installations.
"We are looking forward, in such training, to using new weapons and
fighting and tactical ways," one soldier undergoing a training period was
quoted by the report as saying.
The presence of UK forces in Iraq's south has hastened the transformation
of Iraqi forces into a western-trained force, the report said. (end)
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