Iraq on Sunday branded as illegal an influential committee's recommendation that hundreds of military officers said to be loyal to executed dictator Saddam Hussein be fired.
"The serving officers and civilians were employed entirely legally, in respect of the law," said government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh, referring to the Justice and Accountability Committee's (JAC) declaration that 450 officers be removed on account of their links to Saddam's outlawed Baath Party.
The law authorises "ministers to request exemptions for those deemed to be competent and loyal to the new Iraq so that they can continue in their jobs," Dabbagh added.
Ali al-Lami, executive director of the JAC, said that the committee had recommended the removal of 450 members of the security force.
"Keeping them in their positions is not legal," he told AFP.
"Any exemption (to the ban) requires a process which begins with the Justice and Accountability Committee before going on to the Council of Ministers, and also requires the approval of MPs.
"All of this has not happened," he insisted. The officers would be "removed," he added.
The JAC was responsible for barring 511 candidates from standing in Iraq's parliamentary election on March 7. Twenty-eight of those candidates have since been reinstated, Lami said.
Among the officers affected by the measures were Abboud Qanbar, the former head of Baghdad's security, deputy army chief of staff Abdullah Mohammed Khamis and the deputy commander of the infantry forces Riyadh Jalal.
The men, former officers in Saddam's army, were recruited by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to combat the insurgency in 2006 when violence was at its peak and the country's security forces lacked crucial experience.
General Ray Odierno, the top US commander in Iraq, earlier this month accused Lami and former deputy prime minister Ahmed Chalabi, who is the JAC's chairman, of being under Iran's influence.
Both Chalabi and Lami are candidates in the March 7 legislative election.
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