The last Spanish soldiers yesterday pulled out of their former base in the town of Diwaniyah, southern Iraq, and were expected to cross the border into neighboring Kuwait within hours, Spanish national radio station RNE reported.
Spain's Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who came to power in a surprise election upset in March, is fulfilling a campaign pledge to pull his country's forces from Iraq.
The bulk of the Spanish contingent, originally of 1,430 troops, left the war-torn country on April 28.
Only a small number of troops handling the withdrawal remained in the country.
Spanish soldiers finished withdrawing from their main base in the southern Shiite Muslim holy city of Najaf on April 27.
Spanish forces transferred operations at Diwaniyah to US forces last Sunday.
Satisfied
Zapatero said last week he was glad that he decided to withdraw his country's troops from Iraq.
He said this was especially true now given the upsurge in violence by insurgents and the scandal involving abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of coalition soldiers.
Speaking to parliament, Zapatero said the pullout "is a decision with which I am increasingly satisfied for having made it when I did."
The new government's first announcement after coming to power was that it would pull out Spanish soldiers serving in Iraq unless the UN took political and military control of the troubled country on June 30.
This is the scheduled date for the US-led coalition to transfer power to an Iraqi-led administration.
Having concluded that such a UN role was not in the offing, Zapatero announced on April 18 that he had decided to pull out the Spanish contingent "as soon as possible."
Spain's decision dented the US-led coalition, with Honduras and the Dominican Republic following Madrid's lead and also moving to pull out their troops.
Washington has so far not found any country willing to contribute new troops to replace the departing Spanish and Latin American soldiers.
MONEY GRAB: People were rushing to collect bills scattered on the ground after the plane transporting money crashed, which an official said hindered rescue efforts A cargo plane carrying money on Friday crashed near Bolivia’s capital, damaging about a dozen vehicles on highway, scattering bills on the ground and leaving at least 15 people dead and others injured, an official said. Bolivian Minister of Defense Marcelo Salinas said the Hercules C-130 plane was transporting newly printed Bolivian currency when it “landed and veered off the runway” at an airport in El Alto, a city adjacent to La Paz, before ending up in a nearby field. Firefighters managed to put out the flames that engulfed the aircraft. Fire chief Pavel Tovar said at least 15 people died, but
LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER: By showing Ju-ae’s ability to handle a weapon, the photos ‘suggest she is indeed receiving training as a successor,’ an academic said North Korea on Saturday released a rare image of leader Kim Jong-un’s teenage daughter firing a rifle at a shooting range, adding to speculation that she is being groomed as his successor. Kim’s daughter, Ju-ae, has long been seen as the next in line to rule the secretive, nuclear-armed state, and took part in a string of recent high-profile outings, including last week’s military parade marking the closing stages of North Korea’s key party congress. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a photo of Ju-ae shooting a rifle at an outdoor shooting range, peering through a rifle scope
India and Canada yesterday reached a string of agreements, including on critical mineral cooperation and a “landmark” uranium supply deal for nuclear power, the countries’ leaders said in New Delhi. The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed a fresh start in the relationship between their nations. “Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust and positivity,” Modi said. Carney’s visit is a key step forward in ties that effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi
Gaza is rapidly running out of its limited fuel supply and stocks of food staples might become tight, officials said, after Israel blocked the entry of fuel and goods into the war-shattered territory, citing fighting with Iran. The Israeli military closed all Gaza border crossings on Saturday after announcing airstrikes on Iran carried out jointly with the US. Israeli authorities late on Monday night said that they would reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel to Gaza yesterday, for “gradual entry of humanitarian aid” into the strip, without saying how much. Israeli authorities previously said the crossings could not be operated safely during
RSS