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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, June 20, 2003

Int'l Forces to Replace Some US Troops in Iraq: Paper

In order to put a more international face on the US-dominated occupation in Iraq, the United States is recruiting troops from more than a dozen nations to replace some of its forces in Iraq, The New York Times reported Thursday.


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In order to put a more international face on the US-dominated occupation in Iraq, the United States is recruiting troops from more than a dozen nations to replace some of its forces in Iraq, The New York Times reported Thursday.

The number of troops offered by more than a dozen countries is between 20,000 and 30,000, and they are expected to begin arriving in Iraq in mid-August to replace some of the US occupying forces in the war-torn country, the paper said.

Both US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Vice-Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Peter Pace said the Pentagon was aggressively recruiting dozens of countries to contribute forces to peacekeeping and reconstruction duties in Iraq.

"We have about 20,000 additional coalition troops that have been volunteered by countries to go to theater within the next 60 to 90 days," Pace told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday.

The forces, reportedly from countries of Italy, Spain, Ukraine and Honduras, would join divisions led by Britain and Poland.

But the two high-ranking officials acknowledged that the United States is facing difficulties in prodding other nations to contribute to the peacekeeping in Iraq, the paper said.

After the major combat operations were over in Iraq, the United States reportedly hoped to reduce the number of its troops in Iraq to about 30,000 by this fall. There are now still about 146,000 US troops in Iraq.

However, situation in Iraq remains volatile despite the declaration by US President George W. Bush on May 1 that major combat operations were over.

Since then, 50 US soldiers have been killed, roughly one soldier a day. Between March 20, when the war started, and May 1,138 US soldiers were killed in accidents or by hostile fire.


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