ARABS-US RELATIONS - May 30 - Pentagon Claims Progress In Training Iraqi Forces.

The Pentagon says it had made progress training Iraqi security forces, on the same day that 1,500 US troops stationed in Kuwait were transferred to Anbar, a province in western Iraq, to boost security there. The Pentagon's quarterly report to Congress on Iraq said Anbar remained one of the most dangerous regions of the country alongside Baghdad, Salah ad Din, and Diyala. It said Anbar had the highest number of daily attacks per capita over the past three months. The Pentagon said the number of Iraqi soldiers and police who had completed their training had risen to 263,400, an increase of 36,100 from three months ago. It said the Iraqi ministries of defence and interior were on track to complete initial training targets by the end of this year. The report comes as the Pentagon investigates allegations that US marines killed innocent Iraqis in Haditha last year in retaliation for the death of one of their colleagues. The alleged incident has been compared to the 1968 My Lai massacre in Vietnam where US soldiers murdered hundreds of innocent Vietnamese. The Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki, told that there was a "limit to the acceptable excuses" about such incidents in Iraq, and said his government would investigate the alleged killings. "We are worried about the increase in 'mistakes'", Maliki said. "I am not saying that they are intentional. But it is worrying for us". The Pentagon report said the February bombings of the Golden Mosque in Samarra had sparked an "upsurge in sectarian and militia violence but did not produce the civil war hoped for by its perpetrators". Peter Rodman, an assistant secretary of defence, said the report highlighted the political progress made in Iraq. But he said the delay in forming a government had been a "disappointment", and that the US may have "paid a price for that". He added that the political vacuum may have exacerbated the shock of the Samarra attack. Gen Renuart said the US-led coalition and Iraqi forces still faced threats from foreign fighters, former regime loyalists and groups that reject the US presence in Iraq. But he said the former Saddamists were becoming a "largely irrelevant entity". The report cited polls showing that while most Iraqis had confidence that the Iraqi army and police forces could improve the situation in Iraq, almost 70% of respondents in Mosul believed armed insurgents were likely to improve the situation.