Diverse class of Iraqi police cadets graduate

[unhappycamper]

Diverse class of Iraqi police cadets graduate
Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Nearly 2,000 Iraqi National Police cadets graduated from basic training on Monday, with U.S. officials touting the class as one of the first to be mixed with Sunni, Shiite, Kurdish, Turkmen and Christian recruits.

The 1,830 recruits graduated from the Numaniyah National Training Center, which conducts basic recruit and specialized training for the police. The ceremony was attended by Gen. David H. Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, and Jawad al Bolani, the Iraqi minister of interior.

The Interior Ministry oversees the Iraqi National Police, which in the past has been criticized as being sectarian in nature and loyal only to certain sect leaders.

In recent months, U.S. and Iraqi officials have made efforts to reform both the makeup and reputation of the national police, mainly by increasing training and diversifying recruits.


Article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=51834