Bulgaria to pull troops from Iraq at end of 2008 (Roundup)

Nov 6, 2008, 17:04 GMT

Sofia - Bulgaria would pull its troops from the international military contingent in Iraq once its mandate expires at the end of 2008, the army General Staff said Thursday.

'The mission of the Bulgarian contingent in Iraq will terminate at the end of the year,' it said. The 155 Bulgarians - 120 soldiers and 35 support staff - would in that case return home on December 20.

The decision on the military contingent, which was downsized from the more than 500 when it was sent to Iraq in August 2003, must be made by the parliament in Sofia. Legislators must make that decision before December.

Foreign Minister Ivaylo Kalfin hinted at the possible withdrawal of Bulgarian soldiers from Iraq on Wednesday.

'We are analyzing our presence (in Iraq), but believe that our mission is largely accomplished,' Kalfin said after a conference in Brussels on Wednesday.

It was not the first time the pullout has been discussed in Sofia. Socialist Premier Sergey Stanishev promised to end the unpopular mission in Iraq in his election campaign in 2005.

Despite Stanishev's pledge and the 13 casualties suffered in what many Bulgarians feel is not their war, Bulgaria remained among the staunch European supporters of US policy in Iraq and has kept its troops there since August 2003.

Sofia has so far only downsized the contingent and moved it to a safer location in Baghdad, where it oversees a facility for the re-integration of convicts.

The Balkan country, which joined NATO in 2004 and the European Union in 2007, is due to hold regular parliamentary elections in the middle of 2009, at a date yet to be announced.

Stanishev has led a grand coalition with the conservative National Movement party of former premier Simeon Saxe Coburg-Gotha and the Movement for Rights and Freedom of ethnic Turks since 2005.

Under huge pressure from a new party, headed by the popular former mayor of Sofia, Boyko Borissov, Stanishev and his allies have a few weeks to weigh the effects of the Iraq decision not only on their internal popularity ratings, but also on relations with the incoming administration in Washington.