WORLD> Middle East
El Salvador to pull its troops from Iraq
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-12-24 11:50

MEXICO CITY -- El Salvador has decided to pull out its troops from Iraq by end of this month, president of the central American country said at a  press conference Tuesday.

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"El Salvador will finish its presence in Iraq on December 31," said president Elias Antonio Saca, according to news reaching here from San Salvador, the country's capital.

El Salvador is ready to assist in other ways in rebuilding peace in Iraq, said the president.

El Salvador sent its first contingent of 360 soldiers to Iraq in 2003. At least five soldiers died and 30 others were injured in the war-torn Middle East country.

Saca had said previously that he could send a new contingent to Iraq in 2009, depending on the position of US President-elect Barack Obama.