BAGHDAD, April 17 (UPI) -- Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has said the country's insurgency could be ended immediately using Kurdish, Shiite Muslim, and other militias.
Talabani told the BBC that using the militias would be more effective than waiting for Iraqi forces to take over from the U.S.-led coalition. He said Iraqi forces could take over for the coalition immediately if the new strategy were adopted.
"In my opinion, Iraqi forces, the popular forces and government forces, are now ready to end the insurgency and end this terrorism," he said.
"But there is a kind of thinking inside the [outgoing interim] government that they must not use [them]."
The Kurds have in the past offered the use of their estimated 80,000 Peshmerga guerrillas for security tasks, and the Iranian-influenced Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq has offered its Badr brigade, another well-trained fighting force, but both have been turned down..
"We cannot wait for years and years of terrorist activity because we haven't enough government forces," Talabani said.
