U.S. Effort to Train Iraqi Forces Short of Recruits, Carter Says
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Defense Secretary Ashton Carter acknowledged that the U.S. effort to train Iraqi forces to battle Islamic State is behind schedule because too few Iraqis have signed up to fight the militants.
“We simply haven’t received enough recruits,” Carter told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday. “Of the 24,000 Iraqi Security Forces we had originally envisioned training at our four sites by this fall, we’ve only received enough recruits to be able to train about 7,000, in addition to about 2,000 Counterterrorism Service personnel.”