File:USMC-05748.jpg

English: Marine Lt. Col. Greg A. Branigan, a U.S. military transition team chief, discusses details of operational planning procedures with Lt. Col. Abdul Salam, battalion commander for 1st Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 7th Iraqi Army Division, at an Iraqi Army camp in Hit, Iraq, June 13, 2006. Branigan is part of a cadre of U.S. Marines who have spent the better part of five months training their partnered Iraqi Army battalion to conduct their own military operations. It�s part of a plan to eventually turn the city over to Iraqi Security Forces, although the Marines say the transition is still a �work in progress.� The Iraqi soldiers operate daily with a U.S. Army infantry battalion, Task Force 1st Battalion, 36th Infantry Regiment, in Hit � a mostly Sunni city of about 30,000 located 70 miles northwest of Ramadi. The Marines here say the Iraqi battalion�s leaders have not fully grasped the intricacies of military operational planning, although they still have eight months left to get the battalion�s staff up to snuff. Logistically, however, the Iraqis are making leaps and bounds in progress, the Marines say. Iraqi Army leaders here already conduct their own planning and briefing for supply convoys. Soon, 1st Battalion will be able to run such logistical convoys entirely on their own, with minimal assistance from American troops. Furthermore, U.S. soldiers with 1-36 say Iraqi soldiers �on the ground� are becoming better at spotting suspicious activity in the city, too � proof that Iraqi soldiers are becoming more effective military operators.