Iraqi army conducts first live-fire drill

BAGHDAD, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- U.S. military supervisors in Iraq observed training with Iraqi soldiers conducting a live-fire convoy exercise for the first time since 2003, officials said.

Iraqi soldiers at a training facility in Taji, 60 miles north of Baghdad, conducted live-firing at a distance of 1,300 feet while traveling in moving convoys, Multi-National Forces-Iraq said Wednesday.

"Iraqi soldiers never fired from a moving vehicle in a tactical, disciplined manner before," the senior U.S. adviser at the facility, Lt. Col. William Sims, said.

The nine-day course trained 400 Iraqi soldiers in the use of PK 7.62mm machine guns. U.S. trainers taught the Iraqis to say, "I love you, baby" in English to time controlled bursts of their rifles.

"We want them to be able to shoot while moving, and we want them to have the confidence in shooting," Sims added.

Meanwhile, control of the $15 million Erbil Police Academy was handed over from U.S. to Iraqi control in a ceremony in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.

The academy, funded jointly by the Kurdistan Regional and U.S. governments, sits on a 37-acre plot with several training facilities, a restaurant and an administrative building.

A bronze statue commemorating U.S. Army 1st Lt. Ashley Henderson-Huff, a coordinator for the police facility, was unveiled during the ceremony as well. She died in a suicide attack in September 2006.

The Erbil Police Academy has the capacity to train more than 650 cadets per session.