Iraqi army base mired in corruption

Source The National (UAE)

Iraqi troops once dreamed of being assigned to the army training base in Numaniyah. Electricity ran 24 hours a day, the showers were hot, the food good and the accommodation clean. One of the leading military training centers in the country, the base was significantly upgraded in 2004 at a cost of US$165 million (Dh606m). Situated 150km south-east of Baghdad, it was an example of the new Iraqi army - professional and well equipped. It was home to the Iraqi Intervention Force, the army's counterinsurgency wing and specialist police training units. However, according to rank-and-file soldiers stationed at the camp in Wasit province, it is now being run into the ground by corrupt officers who are selling everything from generators to soldiers' food and clothes. In a series of interviews, Iraqi troops described a base and an army in disarray. While US and Iraqi officials say the nation's forces continue to improve, soldiers at Numaniyah Training Centre insist the opposite is happening, with morale plummeting as the army deteriorates and corruption spreads.