Iraqi Battalion Loses a Third of Its Recruits

WASHINGTON — Plans to deploy the first battalion of Iraq’s new army are in doubt because a third of the soldiers trained by the U.S.-led occupation authority have quit, defense officials said Wednesday.

Touted as a key to Iraq’s future, the 700-strong battalion has lost about 250 men recently as it was preparing to begin operations this month, Pentagon officials said.

“We are aware that a third ... has apparently resigned, and we are looking into that in order to ensure that we can recruit and retain high-quality people for a new Iraqi army,” said Lt. Col. James Cassella, a Pentagon spokesman.

The battalion was highly celebrated in October when the newly retrained soldiers, marching to the beat of a U.S. Army band, completed a nine-week basic training course. The graduates, including 65 officers, were to be the core “of an army that will defend its country and not oppress it,” Iraq’s American administrator, L. Paul Bremer III, said at the ceremony.

It was uncertain exactly why a third abandoned their new jobs, though some had complained that the starting salary -- $60 a month for privates -- was too low, officials said.

The Chicago Tribune, which first reported the resignations, quoted officials in Baghdad as saying that soldiers were angry after comparing their pay with that of other forces. Iraqi police are paid $60 a month and members of the Civil Defense Corps get $50, officials have said.

Others may have resigned because of threats from insurgents who have targeted Iraqis cooperating with occupation authorities, one Defense Department official said.

It also was unclear whether the remaining members of the battalion would be sent out for duty, officials said. And Bremer was said to be considering a review of salaries.