Iraq's government has fired about 1,300 police officers and soldiers who refused to fight during a massive offensive against anti-American Shiite militants last month.
Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, a spokesperson for the Interior Ministry, said Sunday that 37 of the 921 people fired in Basra were senior police officers ranging in rank from lieutenant colonel to brigadier general.
He said police officers comprised 421 of those dismissed and the remaining 500 were soldiers.
About 400 police officers were dismissed in Kut, a Shiite city where the fighting had spread.
The incident stems from an offensive last month, when Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered security forces to confront armed militants loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in the southern city of Basra. The attack was met with vigorous resistance and sparked fighting across Iraq's largely Shiite south and in Baghdad.
Government officials later revealed that about 1,000 security force members switched sides during the fight. Some were seen giving their weapons and vehicles to anti-government fighters.
The deserters are said to include an entire infantry battalion.
Many of Iraq's soldiers and police come from the country's Shiite majority.
Kalaf said those fired in Basra, Iraq's second largest city, would be tried in military court.
"Some of them were sympathetic with these lawbreakers, some refused to (go into) battle for political or national or sectarian or religious reasons," he told The Associated Press.
He said some who disappeared during the offensive are still returning to their detachments. Those who can prove they were held against their will by militias will be reinstated, Khalaf said.
Fighting in Basra, a port city, eased at the end of March but security operations there continue. Lt. Gen. Mohan al-Fireji said Sunday that Iraqi forces there are sweeping six neighbourhoods in a search for illegal weapons and ammunition.
In Kut, the officers who were fired refused orders to fight militias including members of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. A senior police officer who spoke with AP on a condition of anonymity said the national interior minister ordered Saturday that the men be removed from duty.
With files from The Associated Press
