Police recruits being trained in Najaf
(18 Sep 2003) SHOTLIST 1. Various of mosque 2. Line of recruits in training session 3. Various of training course 4. Wide shot of an Iraqi and a coalition officer talking to press 5. SOUNDBITE (English) Darren Gabby, Sergeant, First Class: "Well, mostly we wanted to have just an additional force that works with the regular police to guard the shrine and all the areas around it. Basically, this group is appointed by the mayor. It came from the mayor's office that we needed to have these extra guys. The regular police in the city now they are also going through a police academy. We are getting as we can to go through, even the ones that have been hired before we are running them through. So in addition to those guys we wanted to have someone separate that could start work right away. 6. Various of training exercises 7. SOUNDBITE (English) Lieutenant Abbas Fadhil Abed: "Because of all of the people in the city trying to keep the security and trying to show the city has a good picture for all the country, I think choosing these new people from the tribes that will focus this point that we are all of work together to keep the security in the city and in the whole country." 8. Instructors demonstrating exercise 9. Various of recruits marching in line STORYLINE: Iraqi and coalition forces in the holy city of Najaf are training local police to become shrine police - security guards at the important Shiite Muslim shrine, the Imam Ali mosque. The training of the U.S.-backed, 400-strong police force will be completed next week when the final batch of cadets finish their basic training course. The force, officially called the "Shrine Police Force," was conceived after a failed attempt on the life of a senior Shiite cleric in Najaf. Steps to create the force, however, were accelerated after August 29 when Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir Al-Hakim, was killed by a huge bomb which left at least 85 other people dead. The force, whose members were picked by local tribal chiefs and vetted by the U.S.-backed local council for possible links to Iraqis loyal to ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, is armed with batons, pistols and assault rifles. They'll also use metal detectors. Already, nearly 280 men are deployed around the shrine, searching visitors and offering protection for clerics. U.S. forces in Najaf don't patrol the Imam Ali shrine area so as not offend religious sensitivities, but were alarmed to see militiamen belonging to several Shiite groups brandish their weapons outside the shrine and in other parts of the city in the days after the assassination of Hakim, one of the country's most respected clerics. According to the US Marines, the militiamen withdrew from the streets of Najaf last week after the U.S.-led coalition made it clear that it would not tolerate them operating independently in Iraq. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
