Iraqi Ex-Soldiers To Be Paid, Pipelines Attacked Again

However, faced with a deadline from former soldiers in the capital to pay up or face armed attacks, the occupation authorities announced it would pay former enlisted men their salaries provided they renounced allegiance to Saddam’s Baath party, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"The payments will be paid monthly and the recipients must renounce Baathism and violence," the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) said, adding that between 200,000 and 250,000 of the estimated 400,000 to 600,000 members of Saddam’s security forces were expected to be eligible.

Officers of the rank of colonel and above have already been excluded under the coalition’s policy of removing all senior Baathists from public life.

"The first payments to former soldiers will begin on July 14," the CPA said, adding that they would range between 50 and 250 dollars a month.

U.S. forces have already come under attack from demobilized troops, many of whom melted away with their weapons after the rout of Saddam’s army by the U.S.-led occupation forces.

One U.S. soldier was critically injured when former soldiers launched hit-and-run grenade and sniper attacks in the heart of the northern regional capital of Mosul earlier this month.

U.S. troops also open fired on ex-soldiers outside the occupation authority’s Baghdad headquarters last Wednesday, killing two people in the first such incident in the capital since the entry of U.S. troops on April 9.