Soldiers of toppled president Saddam Hussein’s armed forces faced off in tense protests on Monday with US troops as they demanded payment of their first salaries in four months.
Roughly 300 soldiers and officers from Iraq’s military, disbanded since an overwhelming defeat by a US-led coalition three months ago, gathered at a former Baghdad airport to demand their salaries, unpaid since March.
”There were announcements on the radio and in newspapers that salary distribution would be on the 14th,” air force officer Haseem Anash Atowfuk (35) said as an angry crowd leaned over razor wire and shouted complaints at the US soldiers.
A loudspeaker call in Arabic for the veterans to disperse went largely unheeded, with groups of protestors chanting ”Down, down America”.
US troops appeared prepared to fire warning shots but backed off.
The US-led coalition announced June 23 it would begin monthly payments from $50 to $250 on July 14 for up to 250 000 former professional soldiers, adding that another 300 000 conscripts would receive a one-off settlement.
”They are liars. Our situation is desperate, and maybe all these soldiers will turn against the US because so far there is no solution,” said former soldier Hassan Abdul Wahid.
”If they pay us, it will be more quiet, but if they don’t we will rise up,” he said.
Americans guarding the compound’s south gate said the payments would not begin until Tuesday.
”It starts tomorrow [July 15], when officers will get paid. It goes from the generals on down,” said Sergeant Jose Gamez of the 1st Armoured Division.
US troops opened fire on a demonstration in Baghdad June 18, killing two Iraqi veterans protesting over unpaid salaries — the first such incident in the city since it fell to US-led forces on April 9. – Sapa-AFP