Coalition nations departing Iraq
Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 9:47 amCoalition nations departing Iraq
« Thread Started on Dec 2, 2008, 8:41pm »
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Coalition nations departing Iraq
Posted: 10:54 AM ET
By Joe Sterling
CNN
(CNN) — The U.S.-led coalition in Iraq is swiftly dwindling as security and stability return to the country, and by January, only the United States and five other nations are likely to remain, a top military officer said.
“The security situation has stabilized quite a bit and it allows the coalition as such to change,” said Brig. Gen. Nicolas Matern, a deputy commander for Multi-National Corps-Iraq and a Canadian officer embedded with the U.S. military.
The United States and Britain have been the two major members of the coalition, have the largest contingents there — at 146,000 and 4,000 troops respectively — and have been the ones primarily engaged in combat.
They were among the 35 nations that contributed troops to Iraq during the war — mostly to the Multi-National Force-Iraq and some to the separate NATO and U.N. missions, Matern told CNN in a phone interview from Baghdad.
The number of non-U.S. foreign troops peaked at more than 25,000 earlier in the nearly six-year conflict, but they now number a bit more than 6,000. So far this year alone, Poland, Armenia, Mongolia, Georgia, Latvia, Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kazakhstan and South Korea have departed Iraq.
« Thread Started on Dec 2, 2008, 8:41pm »
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Coalition nations departing Iraq
Posted: 10:54 AM ET
By Joe Sterling
CNN
(CNN) — The U.S.-led coalition in Iraq is swiftly dwindling as security and stability return to the country, and by January, only the United States and five other nations are likely to remain, a top military officer said.
“The security situation has stabilized quite a bit and it allows the coalition as such to change,” said Brig. Gen. Nicolas Matern, a deputy commander for Multi-National Corps-Iraq and a Canadian officer embedded with the U.S. military.
The United States and Britain have been the two major members of the coalition, have the largest contingents there — at 146,000 and 4,000 troops respectively — and have been the ones primarily engaged in combat.
They were among the 35 nations that contributed troops to Iraq during the war — mostly to the Multi-National Force-Iraq and some to the separate NATO and U.N. missions, Matern told CNN in a phone interview from Baghdad.
The number of non-U.S. foreign troops peaked at more than 25,000 earlier in the nearly six-year conflict, but they now number a bit more than 6,000. So far this year alone, Poland, Armenia, Mongolia, Georgia, Latvia, Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kazakhstan and South Korea have departed Iraq.