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Last Hungarian soldiers leave Iraq
The last of Hungary's 300 soldiers serving in a transportation unit south of Baghdad left Iraq on Monday and will be home in a few days, a Defense Ministry spokesman said.
"The soldiers are in now Kuwait and all will return home by Christmas," ministry spokesman Istvan Bocskai said.
Hungary's parliament last year authorized the soldiers' mission, but restricted their activities to non-combat duties and set an end date of Dec. 31, 2004.
The Hungarian unit was based in the city of Hillah and mostly provided transportation services for coalition troops.
The Socialist-led government's plan to extend the mission by three months — until March 31, 2005 — was voted down in parliament last month by the center-right opposition.
Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany had backed the extension, saying it was important for Hungary to be present in Iraq during the elections set to be held there at the end of January.
Still, the government pledged last week to send 150 soldiers to Iraq in the middle of 2005 to provide security at a NATO training camp for Iraqi officers.
Since the soldiers would be under NATO command, their deployment would not need parliamentary approval.
One Hungarian soldier died in Iraq, killed in June when a roadside bomb exploded by the convoy he was guarding. |
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