All Slovak soldiers withdrawn from Iraq: PM

All the Slovak soldiers have moved from Iraq to neighboring Kuwait, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico told Slovak Radio on Saturday.

"I have good news that all soldiers are out of Iraq, they are in Kuwait," Fico said.

Most of the 110 troops, who had operated near the town of Diwaniya to the south of Baghdad, were to return to Slovakia by the end of February, while a total of 11 Slovak army officers will remain in Iraq to help train the Iraqi armed forces, according to Fico.

Fico's Smer-Social Democracy Party and its coalition member, the nationalist Slovak National Party, repeatedly pledged to withdraw the Slovak troops from Iraq last year. The decision for the withdrawal was made last October.

Slovakia deployed over 100 non-combat troops in Iraq in 2003, with most of them engaged in dismantling land mines.

Altogether four Slovak soldiers were killed during their stay in Iraq.

Source: Xinhua