New Iraqi army is born in desert

2003 - The first recruits to the fledgling New Iraqi Army showed off their fighting skills at a desert camp where the United Statesled occupiers hope to turn out 35,000 soldiers in a year. An initial batch of 750 soldiers at the Kirkush camp, near the Iranian border northeast of Baghdad, included ex-members of Saddam Hussain’s disbanded army and Kurdish Peshmerga rebels who until five months ago had been fighting one another.