1,300 security members fired
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, the government said Sunday.
The announcement followed the admission that more than 1,000 members of the security forces had laid down their weapons during the fight that Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki characterized as a campaign to restore law and order to the strategic and oil-rich southern city.
