Iraq Dismisses 1,300 After Basra Offensive

by Dave Keating | April 14, 2008 at 12:55 am

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After mass desertions during the Basra operation, conducted by the Iraqi government with little cooordination with the Americans, the Iraqi army has dismissed almost 1500 soldiers.

The Iraqi government has dismissed 1,300 soldiers and policemen who deserted or refused to fight during last month’s Shiite-on-Shiite battles in Basra, it said Sunday.

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An Iraqi boy on Sunday threw a bottle of water to an Iraq Army convoy in the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, where the army has been fighting militias.

The Basra campaign has been called poorly planned.

The announcement followed the admission that more than 1,000 members of the security forces had laid down their weapons during the fight, which Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki characterized as a campaign to restore law and order to Basra, a strategic and oil-rich southern city.

Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said 500 soldiers and 421 policemen were fired in Basra, including 37 senior police officers up to the rank of brigadier general. Police officials said the remainder were fired in Kut.