A total of 330 South Korean military engineers and medics left for the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah early Wednesday morning to replace some of South Korean noncombatants working there, said the military.

This is the first half of a third batch of soldiers to be sent to Nasiriyah. The 660 troops in total will replace a 463-member unit which is to return home this month after a six-month mission,South Korean Yonhap News Agency quoted an official of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) as saying.

The second half of the dispatch is to leave South Korea on April 28, it said.

The new troops will later move to a northern Iraqi city to join another 3,000 South Korean troops to be deployed there in two to three months.

South Korea is considering either of two Kurdish autonomous cities in northern Iraq -- Sulaimaniyah and Irbil -- as the site to station more than 3,600 troops.

According to press reports, the South Korean government will announce the final deployment site later this week.

The mission would make South Korea the biggest US coalition partner in Iraq after Britain.

Seoul previously had planned to deploy the 3,600 troops in the northern Iraqi town of Kirkuk under an independent operational command. The plan, however, was canceled due to a disagreement with Washington.

The troop deployment is unpopular among the South Korean people. As the security situation in Iraq has recently deteriorated, many people worried that South Korean troops may become target of Iraqi insurgents.

But Seoul has pledged several times it will keep its promise to the international community to go on with the troop dispatch plan.

South Korea has already dispatched two separate batches of hundreds of army engineers and medics to southern Iraq on six-month rotations.

Source: Xinhua