Troop Withdrawals from Ninevah Province Announced

Things are stabilizing enough in Ninevah province enough that troops are beginning to be repositioned from the province:

The top U.S. general in northern Iraq said Wednesday he was redistributing troops and predicted any pullout from the country would take at least two years.

Maj. Gen. Benjamin R. Mixon, commanding general of the Multi-National Division – North and the U.S. Army’s 25th Infantry Division, said American forces could begin drawing down in the north by next year.

Mixon said Ninevah province would be closely monitored, as commanders in the region have said recently the area is becoming increasingly secure as compared to two years ago, when insurgents almost overran Mosul, the provincial capital.

General Mixon has already moved an entire infantry battalion out of Ninevah and it appears even more troops will be repositioned by the end of the year.  General Mixon expects that sometime next year only US air support will be required for the Iraqi forces in the province. 

The article also goes on to explain how General Mixon used his own version of the Anbar Awakening to gain the participation of local tribes in improving the security situation in Ninevah:

Some of the general’s northern commanders have begun experimenting with a new strategy of combating elements like al-Qaida in Iraq and the Islamic State of Iraq. They have enlisted some residents who previously fought American soldiers to provide “security contracts” to guard critical resources.

“We’ve talked with the local sheiks, who the people recognize, and said, ‘Hey, we want to conduct a security contract with you to secure this particular stretch of highway or this particular (oil) pipeline, or whatever — just like a security company,” he said.

“We’re not going to arm them, and we’re not in the business of doing that.”

He said that was up to the sheiks.

Mixon went on to say that the pact is only being conducted on a short-term, trial basis until it is determined how the groups perform under the agreements. In the meantime, they are able to gather all of the recruits’ personal data, even conducting retinal scans. The contracts, which have already gotten under way, will range from about 90 to 180 days.

“For them, it is about providing employment to them, really, at the end of the day, so they aren’t out there seeking their employment by way of placing [a roadside bomb],” Mixon said.

These contracts first of all employ people and secondly they also give the tribes a stake in improving security in their country.  The next big challenge will be integrating the tribal forces into the Iraqi security forces, but the "Awakening" movements taking place across Iraq are having an overall cumulative effect in improving the security situation in the country, that now not even the mainstream media can deny.