Nearly half the newly recruited Iraqi army has quit in a row over poor pay, officials in Baghdad admitted on Thursday.
At least 300 troops from the 700-strong 1st Battalion of the New Iraqi Army walked out less than two months after completing training.
The resignations are a blow to US attempts to build up the Iraqi security forces, who will have a far greater role in running the country once America and Britain hand over power on July 1 to an Iraqi government. The troops, most of whom were recruited from the ranks of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's army, complained that they were paid less than police officers: US$50 a month, against US$120 a month paid to police. Officers were paid US$180, which puts them on the same wage as senior police.
"They felt that they should be paid more money than the police, because they felt the police could go home at night and they didn't go home at night," said an official from the coalition provisional authority, the US-led administration in Baghdad.
The pay scales of all the security forces are under review as a result of the mass resignations. The official added that the salaries were now "hugely higher" than the typical US$2 monthly wage paid to Saddam's conscript army.
"We will review the salaries, but I think their remuneration package at the moment is at least very fair," he said.
In May, Paul Bremer, the civil administrator of Iraq, demobilized the old army, raising a storm of protest from the 400,000 soldiers put out of work.
A second battalion is being trained and more will follow next year, for which the US has proposed spending US$2 billion. Eventually the US hopes to build up an army of 35,000 Iraqis, who will work alongside the other security forces.
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