Iraq: November 1, 2003

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Threats of large scale attacks on coalition troops and Iraqi police did not materialize. There are now some 50,000 Iraqi police and some 8,000 Iraqi Civil Defense Corps militia. These are security troops used to guard government facilities. In the next few months, the coalition expects to have over a hundred thousand Iraqi police and militia in service. This is giving opposition forces fits because the Iraqi police are better able to conduct investigations and uncover hiding places of Baath Party and al Qaeda fighters, and their weapons caches.