After Mosul Iraq's Special Forces Are Struggling To Regroup

Iraqi special operations forces advance during a field training exercise in Baghdad in May. (Sgt. Mitchell Ryan/U.S. Army)

Washington Post: Iraq’s elite special forces struggle to regroup after bloody fight for Mosul

When the Iraqi government launched an online recruitment drive for its elite counterterrorism forces in May, a startling 300,000 men applied. Of those, 3,000 passed a preliminary screening. Only about 1,000 are expected to be accepted into the rigorous joint American-Iraqi training academy, an American military trainer said.

The staggering response points to the popularity of the “Golden Division” following its high-profile role in wresting back territory from the Islamic State. But the rigorous selection process highlights the challenge of rebuilding a force that the United States says lost 40 percent of its human and military resources in the nine-month battle for the city of Mosul.

The counterterrorism forces, numbering only about 10,000, are the undisputed cream of Iraq’s armed forces, but powerful Iran-backed majority Shiite militias are also among the most trusted fighters in the nation. Both are remembered as the forces that stemmed the Islamic State’s march on Iraq in 2014 — as traditional army and police divisions collapsed — and later led the expulsion of the extremist group from its major territorial holdings.

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WNU Editor: When you lose 40% of your division .... it is going to take time to recover. But the remarkable story is that 300,000 Iraqis applied to replace those who had fallen even knowing that only 1,000 would make the final cut.