Early withdrawal

last updated 8 January 2015

Madrid

Spain’s new prime minister, Jose Zapatero, said this week that he would begin pulling troops out of Iraq immediately. Zapatero, who was elected in March, just after the deadly Madrid train bombings blamed on al Qaida, pledged during his campaign that he would withdraw the 1,400 Spanish troops after June 30, unless the U.S. handed power in Iraq to the U.N. But he said he was scrapping that date because it had become obvious that the U.N. could not possibly take over by then. Honduras, which has 370 soldiers in Iraq, said it, too, would pull out, but all other coalition members indicated that they would stand firm. Albania, which has a token force of 71 noncombat troops, volunteered to send a few more.