WASHINGTON—The Pentagon on Saturday said it would call most of its 350,000 furloughed civilian workers back to their jobs, concluding that a recent law allows officials to consider them critical to protecting national security.

The Pentagon employs the largest share of the 800,000 federal workers sent home during the government shutdown. It has been forced to halt military training for many personnel, shutter commissaries, send intelligence analysts home and suspend a range of activities.

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