Iraq: September 24, 2003

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Most of the 470 Bulgarian troops in Iraq signed a petition demanding more money for the danger they face performing their peacekeeping duties. The Bulgarian troops in Iraq now get a 50 percent increase in their normal pay, plus $60 a day. The troops want this increased to $100 a day. In the armies of poor nations, the troops believe that peacekeeping duty is an opportunity to make a lot of money in a short time. 

US troops in northern Iraq have organized local security units composed of Sunni Arabs and Kurds. The  two groups have been at each others throats for centuries, but the American commander in the north convinced them that keeping the peace requires that joint security units be formed. Once the troops from the two groups were put into the same units, and lived together in the same barracks, cooperation resulted. So far.