Askari did not report the cost of hiring 20,000 officers. Over the last
year, the Defense Ministry has been struck by a huge budget shortfall.
The decision reversed years of government policy to block the return of
officials and military personnel tied to the former Saddam regime. In
February, a state-operated commission banned more than 440 Sunni candidates
for parliamentary elections on grounds that they worked for Saddam.
"It aims at gaining votes," Shi'ite opposition parliamentarian Maysoun
Damlouji said.
Officials said 20,400 former Saddam officers agreed to re-join the
military. They said many of the officers have been in exile in such Arab
states as Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Yemen.
The Shi'ite-controlled government of Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki has
been gradually allowing the return of Saddam loyalists to the military and
civil service. In 2008, thousands of former members of Saddam's Baath Party
were informed that they could regain their government jobs.
Al Maliki's decision to return the former Saddam officers prompted the
removal of a ban by a leading Sunni political party. On Feb. 25, the
National Dialogue Front said it would run in parliamentary elections a week
after announcing a withdrawal.
National Dialogue Front chairman Saleh Mutlaq has been accused of
involvement in assassinations by Saddam supporters of Shi'ites in 2005 and
2006. Mutlaq said he had quit the Baath Party more than 30 years ago.
