- Title: IRAQ: NEW ARMY RECRUITS GRADUATE FRON NEW IRAQI ARMY
- Date: 6th January 2004
- Summary: (W6) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (JANUARY 6, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. VARIOUS OF NEW IRAQI ARMY PARADING (2 SHOTS) 0.09 2. WIDE OF ARMY BAND PLAYING MUSIC 0.17 3. WIDE OF AUDIENCE ATTENDING THE GRADUATION CEREMONY 0.18 4. VARIOUS OF IRAQI ARMY MARCHING PAST BAND 0.33 5. SLV U.S. SOLDIERS STANDING BY TANK , WATCHING CEREMONY 0.49 6. WIDE OF DIGNITARIES WATCHING 0.45 7. SLV ADNAN PACHACHI HEAD OF IRAQI GOVERNING COUNCIL WALKING OUT TO REVIEW NEW SOLDIERS 0.55 8. VARIOUS OF THE NEW IRAQI SOLDIERS IN THE GRADUATION CEREMONY MARCHING PAST WITH MILITARY STANDARD (3 SHOTS) 1.15 9. CLOSE OF MILITARY BAND 1.21 10. SLV SOLDIERS MARCHING PAST TRUCK 1.25 11. SLV PEOPLE WATCHING 1.31 12. SCU (SOUNDBITE)(English) LIEUTENANT GENERAL RICARDO SANCHEZ COMMANDER OF U.S. GROUND TROOPS SAYING: "We will have to build all the capacities that are necessary for Iraq to take care of its own internal and external defences, whatever that will require." 1.39 13. SCU (SOUNDBITE)(Arabic) ADNAN PACHACHI HEAD OF IRAQI GOVERNING COUNCIL, SAYING: "Those young men will be the core of the new Iraqi army, the army of democratic and free Iraq which will protect Iraq and its unity and sovereignty." 2.00 14. VARIOUS OF IRAQI SOLDIERS DANCING IN CELEBRATION (3 SHOTS) 2.18 15. WIDE OF THE SOLDIERS DANCING Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 21st January 2004 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BAGHDAD, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Reuters ID: LVABKT38BUY9HZCWMKO9A2XW6I84
- Story Text: New recruits graduate for Iraqi army
after completing a nine-week training course.
The second battalion of the new Iraqi army set up
by the U.S.-led coalition graduated on Tuesday (January 6),
with the graduation ceremony coinciding with the
anniversary of the Iraqi Army Day.
The graduation ceremony was held at the sprawling
compounds of al-Taji, a former base of the Iraqi army.
The ceremony was attended by U.S. General Ricardo
Sanchez commander of U.S. ground troops in Iraq and Adnan
Pachachi head of the U.S. appointed governing council along
with a number of the Governing Councils members.
The ceremony started with a parade of the new Iraqi
army members on the beat of the military music.
The new Iraqi army falls within the drive by the
coalition to hand over more and more security
responsibility to the Iraqis, as its own forces come under
daily fire by guerrilla fighters.
"We have to build all the capacities that are necessary
for Iraq to take care of its own internal and external
defences, whatever that will require," Sanchez said after
the graduation ceremony .
In a setback to U.S.-led coalition's plan, about 300
of the 700 members in the first new Iraqi army battalion
quit last month, complaining of bad pay and work condition.
The rest of the First Battalion is serving with the U.S.
4th Infantry Division.
Privates in the army are being paid about 60 United
States dollars (USD) and Lieutenant Colonels and other more
senior officers around 150 USD.
U.S.-led forces disbanded Iraq's 400,0000-strong army
after Saddam's was ousted, leading to furious protests by
dismissed soldiers. They then started recruiting and
training a smaller force it envisions will number around
40,000. They have also training a number of police and
border guards to gradually take over more of a role in
security.
Former high-ranking officers were barred from joining
the new fighting force but the U.S. military said 75
percent of the first Iraqi recruits had served in lower
ranks of Saddam's army.
Iraq's U.S.-backed Governing Council, which abolished
all the official holidays celebrated under the former
regime of president Saddam Hussein had announced January 6,
the founding anniversary of the Iraqi Army, an official
holiday in Iraq.
Army Day was one of the three most important national
occasions in modern Iraq, in addition to the 1920
revolution against the British mandate and the 1958
Revolution that resulted in Iraq's withdrawal from the
Anglo-American Baghdad Pact.
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