The Latest: Pentagon says only 6,500 soldiers in bonus snafu

WASHINGTON – The Latest on enlistment bonuses the Pentagon is ordering California National Guard soldiers to repay (all times local):

6 p.m.

The Pentagon says it instructed at most 6,500 California National Guard soldiers to repay enlistment bonuses received a decade ago at the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Defence Department spokesman Maj. Jamie Davis says the number is lower than a widely reported figure that nearly 10,000 soldiers have been told to repay part or all of their bonuses. The number was first reported by The Los Angeles Times.

Davis says an audit more than five years in the making concluded last month that 1,100 soldiers improperly received bonuses for which they were ineligible. Another 5,400 soldiers had erroneous paperwork that could have made them ineligible.