Word: iraqi
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...platoon across once perilous terrain, Lieutenant Colonel William Zemp was quick to praise Iraqi troops. Less than six months ago, this farming village near the town of Mahmudiya - about 50 miles south of Baghdad - was prime al-Qaeda territory, and a target for numerous raids. On this day, however, small groups of children poked their heads out of doorways to wave; an army medic checked an old woman in a wheelchair; and two families invited the troops to lunch. None of this would have been possible, Zemp said, without the efforts of the newly strengthened Iraqi Army...
...where was the Iraqi platoon that was supposed to be leading this morning's sweep of the village? As it turned out, they had all overslept...
There were a few Iraqi troops around, in mismatched uniforms, as well as a secondary commander, but the designated platoon was nowhere to be found. "The army is very good at what they do," said Zemp. "They just have a problem with sleeping in." Once the Iraqi detail arrived, they stomped down the same dirt path that U.S. troops had already patrolled, only to be called back and redirected. "I was sleeping," their commander shrugged as he greeted Zemp...
...military commanders in Iraq and the Iraqi government have been trumpeting the growing confidence and successes of the Iraqi army and police force, since Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki launched an offensive against Basra last month, with the aim of reclaiming control of the southern port city from the Mahdi Army militia of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Despite meeting powerful resistance from the Mahdi Army, and suffering the desertion of roughly 1,300 soldiers who refused to fight, the Iraqis' performance was commended by the U.S. as a show of their newfound competence. "Iraqi forces are taking the lead...
...many American troops, the picture of Iraqi troop performance is not quite as rosy. In Hilla, the largest town in the central Iraqi province of Babil, soldiers and residents say the violence was fiercest on March 25. And at least one American soldier said he was angry that the role of Iraqi troops was exaggerated after the battle. "A gunfight broke out and we were fighting [the Mahdi Army] for about four hours," the soldier told TIME. "The army article made it sound like we were just there supporting the Iraqi Army, but we did all the work. We just...