US: The United States announced new plans to pacify angry former Iraqi soldiers and create a new army yesterday as two visiting US senators said American troops could stay for more than five years.
American efforts to restore order in Iraq took another blow when an oil export pipeline, not in use since the US-led war began on March 20th, exploded near the Syrian border, in the third pipeline blast this month.
Two visiting US senators said American troops may need to stay in Iraq for at least five years.
A Republican, Mr Richard Lugar, urged President Bush to do some "real truth-telling" to explain to his people how much commitment and money would be needed to rebuild the country from the ruins of war and 35 years of Baathist rule.
"I think we're going to be here in a big way with forces and economic input for a minimum of three to five years," his Democrat colleague Mr Joseph Biden told reporters.
Many Iraqis were glad to see the back of Saddam Hussein, but are impatient to get rid of their US-British occupiers.
One grudge is the failure to install an interim Iraqi government and get public servants back to paid work.
The US-led administration disbanded the old army last month along with security agencies and the information and defence ministries, making about 400,000 people jobless.
"This country was grotesquely over-militarised," Mr Walter Slocomb, an aide to chief administrator Mr Paul Bremer, said.
Mr Slocomb said recruiting would begin next week for a new light infantry force that would eventually number about 40,000 to guard Iraq's borders and key installations.
The aim was to get one 12,000-strong division fully operational a year after training began. Two more divisions would be trained and ready within two years, he said.
Mr Slocomb said former soldiers would now be paid a "monthly interim stipend" slightly lower than their previous salaries until a new Iraqi government could decide their future.
Payscales for the stipend would be similar to civil servant salaries, ranging from $50 to $150 (€43 to €129) a month. Senior Baathists would be excluded from the compensation plan and the new army.
Anger among unpaid soldiers boiled into violence last week when US troops shot dead two protesters in a crowd that was stoning a military convoy as it drove into the administration's headquarters in Saddam's former palace compound in Baghdad. Ex-soldiers say previously promised payoffs were inadequate or failed to materialise.
A US soldier was killed in a grenade attack on a military convoy on Sunday, bringing to 19 the number killed by enemy fire since President Bush declared major combat over on May 1st.
- (Reuters)