44 Bulgarian soldiers request to leave Iraq

About 44 Bulgarian soldiers serving in Iraq have asked to go home, Bulgarian Vice Defense Minister Ilko Dimitrov was quoted by the Bulgarian news agency as saying Wednesday.

After attacks on their 450-member infantry battalion in the southern holy city of Karbala, 15 soldiers requested to be relieved from the unit early this month.

The battalion has sustained repeated machine-gun, rocket-propelled grenade and mortar attacks from Shi'ite militants since radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr launched a revolt against the US-led occupation in Iraq.

The unit's death toll rose to six when a soldier was killed on April 23 in patrolling, adding fuel to nervousness among the soldiers. After President Georgi Parvanov visited the unit on April 25, more soldiers wanted to quit.

Bulgaria sent 500 troops to Iraq for peace-keeping in May 2003.Its main duties were to patrol the center of the city and guard the City Hall and police headquarters in Karbala.

Five Bulgarian soldiers were killed in a bomb attack in the city on Dec. 27, 2003 and another four were injured in recent conflicts.

Source: Xinhua