WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Buzzard‘s remarks come amid reports that US forces have not sufficiently trained and equipped Iraqi Sunnis and they have been slow to fight Islamic State extremists that have captured mostly Sunni-inhabited areas in Iraq.
"An important part of success in Iraq is [going to] be the incorporation of Sunnis into the solution, so there are ongoing efforts right now in respect to… Sunni tribal training," Buzzard stated. "Prime Minister Abadi has made that a focus, it's moving forward, maybe not necessarily at the pace we think it should, but there is progress."
"The Iraqi army just completed an assessment… to identify where there were AWOL [absent without leave] soldiers, missing soldiers," he said.
Buzzard added a major recruiting effort to either build new brigades or fill out existing brigades will soon take place.
"[O]bviously Sunni incorporation into that is critical into the legitimate Iraqi security forces," Buzzard added.
ISIL, a Sunni terrorist group, holds significant swaths of mainly Sunni-dominated areas in Iraq.
