Almost half the soldiers recruited into Iraq’s new model army have deserted less than two months after completing basic training, in a severe embarrassment for the US-led administration in Baghdad.
Three hundred of the new Iraqi army’s 700-strong 1st Battalion were discharged after they refused to obey orders following a row over pay and “terms and conditions”, a senior coalition provisional authority official confirmed yesterday.
However, Iraqis told The Times some had left because they feared being killed in escalating attacks on occupation forces, and because the training was too hard.
Their departure is a significant setback to the coalition’s efforts to hasten the recruitment and deployment of Iraqis on to the streets to combat the upsurge in attacks on US-led troops, which average 21 a day.
The 1st Battalion was celebrated with fanfare when a US Army band played at the ceremony marking the end of its nine-week initial training course in October. Only last week, Donald Rumsfeld, US Defence Secretary, hailed the newly-created units as the future of the nation’s armed forces. He made no mention of the malcontents.
A coalition official conceded that there had been “forcible resignations” among the battalion, which is now serving with the US 4th Infantry Division in readiness for deployment, but said: “I’m not sure that these people necessarily wanted to resign.”
He said there would be a review of the conditions before 2,000 Iraqis began training in January. New recruits get $50 a day, much higher than the $2 they received under the old regime, although living costs have also soared. “My understanding is they felt they should be paid more money, for example, than the police because the police go home at night and they don’t,” the coalition official said.
“It’s a new force. We always said that there may be some difficulties along the way.”
The new Iraqi army was created in the summer after Paul Bremer, the chief coalition administrator, formally dissolved the former regime’s military in May. It will eventually number 40,000, a tenth of Saddam’s military, and will largely carry out duties involving border security and checkpoints.
Selection began on July 19 after recruiting notices asking “Do you have what it takes to serve a free Iraq?” appeared in Iraqi newspapers and coalition-run radio announcements, offering men aged 18 to 40 a good salary, meals, medical and dental care.
About three-quarters of initial recruits were soldiers, but the coalition deliberately excluded senior members of Saddam’s armed forces by banning anyone above the rank of colonel, and high-ranking Baathists. They were trained by civilian former soldiers.
Coalition officials maintained they were still on track to create a 150,000-strong network of Iraqi security forces but said the discharged soldiers would not be replaced immediately. The network is made up of 75,000 police, 35,000 soldiers, 17,500 border police, 50,000 facility protection service guards and 40,000 civil defence corps.
The violence continued yesterday, with a US soldier killed and 14 wounded in a suicide bomb attack on a military base in Ramadi, west of Baghdad.
On Wednesday, two Time magazine journalists and two US soldiers were injured in Baghdad when the Humvee they were travelling was attacked. Michael Weisskopf, Time’s senior correspondent, picked up a grenade that landed inside the vehicle and tried to throw it out. It exploded, ripping off his hand and wounding him in the chest.
His colleague, James Nachtwey, an award-winning photographer, also suffered shrapnel wounds. The two journalists were said to be in stable condition last night.
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