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Cleaning House: 1300 Iraqi Troops, Police Dismissed
The Iraqi government has dismissed about 1,300 soldiers and policemen who deserted or refused to fight during last month's offensive against Shiite militias and criminal gangs in Basra, officials said Sunday.make sure you get back the uniforms and weapons, k?
Too chummy with Sadr's "criminals" The others were dismissed in Kut, one of the Shiite cities where the fight had spread. Last month, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered the security forces to confront armed groups in Basra, Iraq's second largest city. But they met fierce resistance and the attack quickly ground to a halt as fighting flared across the Shiite south and Baghdad. Since then, government officials have revealed that about 1,000 members of the security forces - including an entire infantry battalion - had mutinied, on some cases handing over vehicles and weapons to the militias. Speaking in Basra, Khalaf said those dismissed included 421 police officers and 500 soldiers who had not returned to duty in the southern port city and would be tried by military courts. "Some of them were sympathetic with these lawbreakers, some refused to (go into) battle for political or national or sectarian or religious reasons," Khalaf said. or because they were pulling dual duties? But he said that those who returned in coming days and could prove they had been prevented from doing so by the militias would be reinstated.
Posted by: Frank G 2008-04-13 |
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