More withdrawals for foreign forces from Iraq

With the escalated wave of attacks against the local and foreign forces in Iraq, the Bulgarian parliament approved a plan to reduce the number of the Bulgarian forces in Iraq with the fall on next month, and to withdraw these forces ultimately before the end of the current year.

Some 115 parliamentarian out of 208 who attended the session voted in support of pulling out the Bulgarian forces which toll 450 soldiers in Iraq.

Earlier in the day on Thursday, the Japanese papers quoted government sources as saying that Tokyo will withdraw its forces totaling 600 soldiers from Iraq and Kuwait in December and announce its humanitarian mission in the country. Tokyo intends to notify the Japanese parliament and the coalition countries in September to assess the situation in Iraq and then to convert its support to Iraq to a form of developments aids.

The Japanese soldiers are deployed in al-Samawah city to the south of Iraq while 200 members of the Japanese air force are positioned in Kuwait in logistic operations.

These developments came while the new government of Ibrahim al-Jaafari seeks to maintain control on the security situation and to proceed in the project to approve the constitution and organize the elections by the end of the current year.