Washington, June 17. (PTI): Many U.S. women soldiers in Iraq are leaving the frontline and returning home, but the Pentagon does not want to reveal their numbers as the "embarrassing" statistic includes unwed mothers, media reported on Wednesday. "U.S. Central Command is not tracking the number of troops who must leave the Iraq war theatre due to pregnancy, prompting military advocates to charge that the Pentagon wants to keep secret what could be an embarrassing statistic," The Washington Times said in a report. The paper said that there have been anecdotal reports of unmarried women soldiers becoming pregnant in Iraq. One military police unit reported losing three women for that reason. Lynndie England, the 21-year-old photographed holding a leash attached to a naked Iraqi prisoner, became pregnant during an affair with another soldier at the Abu Ghraib prison compound in Iraq, it said. But overall numbers are hard to come by. "We are definitely not tracking it," said a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, which runs the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
