Militia Training

This is the best approach to this mission. Using your companion to enter first is vital. Focus on one target at a time and only attack the one he is focussed on, ensure he is definitely staying on it by using CTRL+1 as some like Qyzen Fess like to switch targets to the one that hit them the hardest. For classes with ranged abilities this is a doddle as you can then fire or cast at a range without getting the trainees in danger of aggroing any other nearby mobs, close range classes will have a bit of a hard time and I would strongly suggest not using autotarget whilst on this mission so that you don't hit a different target to your companion and causing the trainees to start smacking up different targets or taking aoe damage.

Activating this mission requires activating a bonus mission around 520, -2420 and completing the 3 stages there, then returning to Anchorhead and speaking to Galen Besk to start the Tatooine: Bonus Series, then completing the mission to free captive Jawas at Camp Karnori.

This mission is beyond frustrating as a Kinetic or Infiltration Shadow. You get three tiny health 'helpers' who cannot be buffed or healed and will aggro at your 10m range. You'll need to grab aggro first on every fight with Mind Control, Force Lift, Force Stun, and Force Potency + Telekinesis or you will fail. And you have to avoid aggroing everything on your way to the too-far-away target, because the nearer Sand People stuff is only for other missions. And you have a 30m time limit to do this in.

Terribly designed mission.

Hurry back after it's done, because if they die after you've completed it, or you take too long to return, you're hosed.

"Just remember your 30mm time limit includes getting back to the NPC to turn it in, so don't dawdle!"

You get 30 minutes on the initial timer, but it resets when you make your final kill. You only get 6 minutes to hand in.

I didn't have any problem with this this morning. Just speeder to where the Sand people are. They are in groups of 3 or so. Down them until you have killed 18 and get back to the mission giver. I am a level 28 Trooper. You want to be doing these bonus series missions just before leaving Tatooine, so you should be level 27 or 28 or more.

Cheers.

"This mission is beyond frustrating as a Kinetic or Infiltration Shadow."

The following worked for me (at the second try) as an Infiltration-specced Shadow. I didn't lose a single militiaman, and I got my 18th kill after about 12 minutes. It's nothing special - just what others have already said - and something similar should work for most dps. Basically the militiamen are a very weak extension of yourself; they go where you go, and attack what you attack. So you don't want them getting aggro (they're extremely squishy) and you don't want them getting caught in AOEs. Other than that, the fight's a tank-and-spank.
1) Stood well back; picked a target at the back of a target group and sent Qyzen (tank) in (CTRL-1) to pick up aggro and turn the rest of the group. (My usual Shadow tactics anyway, although I didn't use stealth for this fight. Depending on the group, one or two enemy stealthers sometimes appeared at this point.)
2) After a couple of seconds, ran up behind one of the group not being attacked by Qyzen, and took it hard from behind with dps attacks. The militiamen join in at this point, and the target always went down in seconds. Moved round the outside of the group to the rear of the next target, and repeated. I didn't plan to attack Qyzen's target until last unless he was in trouble (and that never actually happened).
3) Healed up, picked a new group and repeated until done. I had to pick off a couple of patrolling mobs along the line using the same tactics.
4) Mounted up and hauled butt back to the hand-in.

I failed on the first try (and came here looking for ideas) because there are TWO quests that send you to attack Sandpeople, and I made the dumb mistake of attacking the wrong group with the militiamen. At which point I discovered that (a) Sandpeople Patriarchs have an AoE flame attack, and (b) militiamen burn like kindling. Use your map and don't make the same mistake - the groups you want are NOT the ones nearest to the base at which you get the quest.

EDIT: Just ran the same quest with a DPS Sentinel and Kira (also DPS) as my comp, and the same tactics worked fine: stand back out of aggro range; send comp in; wait a couple of seconds; join in and kill everything. Plenty of time to spare, and, again, no militia casualties.

I suspect this quest is bugged. I have completed it like 4 times, it just resets and you have to go back to the militia summoning box again.

EDIT: It finally completed on like my 6th attempt.