Warsaw
Polish officials said this week they wanted to bring their troops home from Iraq by the end of next year. “We decided to speak with the Iraqis and our coalition partners and the United States about a reduction of the Polish forces from Jan. 1,” President Aleksander Kwasniewski said, “and maybe to finish our mission at the end of 2005.” The U.N. Security Council resolution that details steps for the transfer of power to Iraqi authorities runs through December 2005. If all goes as planned, Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski said, Polish troops won’t be needed after that date. Poland, one of the earliest to join the U.S. coalition, has some 2,500 troops in Iraq and commands nearly 4,000 troops from other countries.
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