Australian troops to leave Iraq by mid 2008

[ianrcrane]

Gotta get those Aussies back on track, so watch out for Bali III

Ian.


Australian troops to leave Iraq by mid-2008

By Nick Squires in Sydney
Last Updated: 1:45pm GMT 30/11/2007

Australia's 550 combat troops in Iraq will be withdrawn by the middle of next year, the country's new Labour has announced government.

Prime minister-elect Kevin Rudd, who will be formally sworn in on Monday, had made a pre-election promise to pull the troops out, arguing their presence had made Australia more of a terrorist target.
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The move will be a blow to Canberra's relations with the United States, which values the small but politically significant Australian presence.

But the Labour government will leave around 1,000 other military personnel in and around Iraq, including a naval presence in the Gulf and soldiers protecting Australian diplomats in Baghdad.

Mr Rudd will also maintain Australia's 1,000-strong military presence in Afghanistan.

John Howard, the outgoing conservative prime minister, was one of the first leaders to commit forces to the US-led invasion in 2003, sending 2,000 troops.

Mr Howard, one of US President George W Bush's staunchest allies, had refused to set a timetable for pulling out troops, saying any withdrawal would embolden terrorists throughout the Middle East.

Mr Rudd will discuss the withdrawal when he meets President Bush during a visit to the US early next year.

"It's a situation ... where Australia is determining how it's going to reposition its forces, how it's going to deploy its resources in a new and different way, and we are looking forward to working with Mr Rudd in achieving it," the US ambassador to Australia, Robert McCallum, said earlier this week.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/30/woz230 .xml