Iraqi army almost ready

General Othman Ghanimi Baghdad - Jaafar Nassrawi      Commander of the Middle Euphrates Operations (MEO), the largest sector of the Iraqi army, General Othman Ghanimi, said that Iraqi politicians make untrue, and in turn insulting, statements about the readiness of Iraq's army. He stressed at the same time that the army is "90 per cent ready" to take charge of security and defence in Iraq. Ghanimi, in an interview with ‘Arabstoday’, said that politicians made statements about the Iraqi army without understanding its nature, accusing some of them of insulting the army’s reputation for political gains, or to gain the sympathy of some countries which fund their parties. In reference to the withdrawal of US forces by the end of this year, Ghanimi said: “The Middle Euphrates Operations, which are in charge of protecting about two-thirds of Iraq, in addition to a large part of the regional borders with Iran and Saudi Arabia, are ready to take over security without any support”, elaborating: “Middle Euphrates Operations effectively took over since 2008, with exception to air support, which was limited to the support of aerial screening and not combat, and thus has become experienced in dealing with armed groups”. Ghanimi added: “Among the sectors of its force is what was called hot spots, which is an area North of Babel, while the lakes, and south of Baghdad are no longer hot due to the tactical change in sectors of the Iraqi army. Tactics changed from defence to attack through many operations launched by the forces on armed groups.” “There are many areas that were centers for these groups, but thanks to these operations carried out by the forces, more than one armed group were arrested, of which most belonged to Al-Qaeda,” he explained As for the strategy adopted by the MEO in attacking armed groups, Ghanimi stated: “The chief role and effort was that of the Intelligence. Forces used to attack the sites of armed groups, finding fixed locations along their main work and controlling them, so that they would not be able to reorganise themselves and gain back control”, stressing that most active terrorist cells in the area of his operations were arrested or killed during attacks; last of which was called “Governors of Babel, Karbala, and Najaf regions in Islamic Iraq”, in addition to many armed elements which constitute their backbone. “There is a coordination to hunt the rest, who have fled to different regions in Iraq, including Kurdistan, where they were pursued by coordination of other security forces, and some of them were arrested and brought back to the regions where they committed their terrorising crimes to be tried,” said Ghamini.  He however admitted that the Iraqi military still needed help in certain sectors. “The Iraqi forces still need specialised Air Defense, especially in combat, in order to be complete and to be able to perform their duties to the fullest.” Ghanimi concluded his interview by stressing on the importance of the role of media, which is based on professionalism and objectivity, accusing some media of being “biased" while  depicting Iraqi Security Forces as still fragile and conveying an inaccurate image of Iraq's reality.