1,000 Iraqi Kurdish soldiers desert army

(MENAFN- Arab News)  More than 1,000 Kurdish career soldiers in the Iraqi army have deserted and want to be integrated into the Kurdish former rebel peshmerga militia. The move comes after the Kurdish troops disobeyed orders to take part in an operation ordered by the Shiite-led government in Baghdad against a mainly Sunni Arab town. If their request is fulfilled, such a mass defection would deal a heavy blow to Iraq's stretched armed forces as they grapple with a surge in violence that has sparked fears of renewed sectarian bloodshed. Two officials said the 1,070 Kurdish members of the Iraqi army's 16th Brigade mutinied when gunmen took control of a northern town in April, and subsequently declined to attend disciplinary re-training. The soldiers were no longer receiving salaries or rations from the Iraqi army, nor were they following any orders from federal forces, according to the mayor of the town where they are based and the spokesman for the peshmerga ministry.