Dominican Republic decides to pull troops out of Iraq
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) - Following the lead of Spain and Honduras, Dominican troops will be pulled out of Iraq in the upcoming weeks, Dominican Armed Forces Gen. Jose Miguel Soto Jimenez said on Tuesday.
The announcement came just two days after President Hipolito Mejia pledged to keep the country's 302 troops in Iraq until their deployment ended in August.
"The troops in Iraq will be coming back in the next couple weeks,'' said Soto Jimenez.
Soto Jimenez said Mejia made the decision based on security concerns for Dominican soldiers after Honduras announced its troops would be pulled back early.
The Dominicans have been serving with the 370 Honduran troops under Spanish-led brigade, which has been policing Iraq's al-Qadisiya and Najaf provinces since August.
On Sunday, Spain said it would pull out its 1,300 soldiers early, prompting Honduras to follow Monday.
The two countries' troops were expected home in about six weeks.
"We are worried no doubt,'' Mejia said earlier on Tuesday before a meeting with top government and military officials.
Spain's decision followed March 14 general elections, won by Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialist Party on a platform that included pulling troops out of Iraq.
Exit polls showed many Spanish voters believed outgoing Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, by backing the U.S.-led war in Iraq, had provoked commuter-train terrorist bombings that killed 191 people three days before the vote.
More Dominicans have criticized Mejia's support of the war since Dominican troops have come under attack in the past two weeks.
Political opponents, running against Mejia in next month's presidential elections, have also criticized the decision to commit the troops.
While no Dominican troops have been injured, as of Tuesday, 707 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq last year, according to the Department of Defence.
The British military has reported 58 deaths; Italy, 17; Spain, eight; Bulgaria, five; Ukraine, four; Thailand, two; Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia and Poland have reported one.
Since May 1, when U.S. President George W. Bush declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, 569 U.S. soldiers have died - 401 as a result of hostile action and 168 of non-hostile causes. - AP
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