BAGHDAD — The Iraqi government said Thursday that it would reinstate 20,000 army officers who served under Saddam Hussein, a surprising move given that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has focused his campaign in the coming parliamentary elections around denouncing the former Baath government.



Mohammed al-Askari, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, said the prime minister approved the reinstatement of the officers, which he said would begin immediately.

With just over one week before Iraq holds its first national elections since 2005, the announcement, made on state-run television, was greeted with skepticism by Mr. Maliki’s rivals.

“This is purely a means of trying to gain more votes,” said Mayson al-Damalogi, a spokesman for Iraqiya, a coalition of Sunni and secular candidates headed by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

After the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Iraqi Army was disbanded as the governing authority at the time, the American-led Coalition Provisional Authority, instituted a policy of de-Baathification. However, the move is now widely seen as helping fuel an insurgency. In 2004, there were efforts to bring many of the officers from Mr. Hussein’s time back into the army and many returned. However, thousands remained outside the fold.

Mr. Askari said that officers from Mr. Hussein’s government would be hired back immediately, making them eligible to participate in early voting scheduled for March 4. However, government officials with knowledge of the plan could not be reached for comment.

The reinstatement was especially confusing, critics said, because it came on the heels of a government decision to bar hundreds of candidates from the elections, supposedly for supporting the former government.

One of the leading members of the Iraqiya list, Saleh al-Mutlaq, a Sunni, was included on the list of barred candidates. In response, his party, the National Dialogue Front, called for a boycott of the election by Sunnis.

But at a news conference in Baghdad on Thursday, Mr. Mutlaq said that his party now wanted everyone to vote. His party’s earlier call for a boycott seemed to have largely fallen flat.

“Stand up!” Mr. Mutlaq shouted to the cameras, banging his fist on the lectern. “Stand up and support your country.”

Mr. Allawi, standing beside Mr. Mutlaq, claimed that his coalition continued to be subjected to injustices.

“Every day they are arresting people, they are chasing people,” he said. “The reasons for the attacks against us by these sick individuals is that surveys show we have a chance in this election.”

As the election draws closer, the language has grown more pointed, as have the allegations of misconduct. And as politicians exchange bitter barbs, the backdrop for the election remains violence.

There were scattered attacks around Iraq on Thursday, with the most unrest in the ethnically mixed northern city of Mosul.

The police found the body of a woman whose head had been cut off in the street on Thursday morning. There were several drive-by shootings and other attacks as well that left four people dead and two others wounded.

In recent weeks, attacks on Christians in Mosul have also increased. At least eight Christians there have been murdered in less than two weeks.

“The government condemns the attacks on Christians, one of our people, and has decided to form a commission of inquiry,” said Ali al-Dabagh, a government spokesman.

About 20,000 Christians live in Mosul. Many fled the region after being singled out by militants in 2008.

A version of this article appeared in print on February 26, 2010, on page A8 of the New York edition.

Source: NY Times, February 25, 2010
By MARC SANTORA