Australia says its 550 troops in Iraq have ended combat operations and will return home by the end of the June.
The intended pullout will fulfil a pledge made by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd during last November's Australian election. Australia's force based at Tallil, an air base in southern Iraq, joined the US-led invasion in 2003 when former premier John Howard was a staunch ally of US President George W. Bush. The Australian military says Australian customs officers uncover geckos smuggled to CzechRep ...
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Liverpool win Merseyside derby ... its troops trained local Iraqi forces and carried out reconstruction work. Australia suffered no combat losses. It will still have 1,000 security and liaison personnel deployed in countries neighbouring Iraq, working mostly on warships and an aircraft patrolling the Gulf. In Baghdad a roadside blast has killed an American soldier. On Saturday night a suicide bombing in Hit, a city west of Baghdad, killed nine Iraqi policemen and four civilians.
(Deutsche Welle)
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