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Spain out of Iraq
21/05/2004 18:22 - (SA)
Madrid - Spain completed its troop withdrawal from Iraq on Friday as the last of its soldiers crossed the border into Kuwait, the defence ministry said.
A convoy of Spanish troops on trucks and buses set out on Friday morning from their base in Diwaniyah and rolled into Kuwait shortly before 13:00 (GMT), the ministry said.
The troops were the last of a contingent of logistics experts and other soldiers who had been packing up gear used by 1 300 soldiers sent by the previous government to take part in the US-led occupation. The withdrawal of those 1 300 was completed late last month on orders from the new Socialist government.
The ministry declined to say how many troops had left Iraq on Friday but the radio station Cadena Ser put the figure at 600.
A vast majority of Spaniards opposed the US-led war and that opposition was a crucial factor in the Socialists' defeat of then Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's conservative Popular Party in March 14 elections.
Many Spaniards said the government's support for the war had provoked the March 11 terrorist bombing in Madrid, blamed on Islamic militants. It killed 191 people and wounded more than 2 000.
Spanish troops suffered 11 fatalities in Iraq, including seven intelligence officers killed in an ambush in November.
Zapatero ordered the troop withdrawal on April 18, a day after taking office.
He said his terms for keeping them in Iraq - United Nations political and military control of the occupation - had no chance of being met.
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