- Title: EL SALVADOR: HUNDREDS OF TROOPS SHIP OUT TO IRAQ
- Date: 13th August 2005
- Summary: COMALAPA, EL SALVADOR (AUGUST 11, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. SLV SOLDIERS WITH SALVADORAN FLAG 0.06 2. SOLDIERS GETTING ON PLANE 3. SOLDIER SALUTING 4. SOLDIERS WAITING ON PLANE 5. VARIOUS OF SOLDIERS GETTING ON PLANE 0.32 6. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) GENERAL CARLOS EDUARDO CACERES, SAYING "They arrive tomorrow in Kuwait and in seventy two hours we leave for Al Hilla (city in Iraq). We will arrive and exchange positions (with the Salvdoran troops currently there)." 0.48 7. SLV SOLDIERS GETTING ON PLANE; MARIACHI MUSIC PLAYING AS SOLDIERS LEAVE; WIDE OF PLANE (VARIOUS) 1.46 8. LAS SALVADORAN FLAG; PLANE LEAVING (VARIOUS) 2.13 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 28th August 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: ILOPANGO, EL SALVADOR
- Country: El Salvador
- Reuters ID: LVA1Y67Z5TWAQVI77N8M4NQL36EF
- Story Text: Hundreds of troops from El Salvador ship out to Iraq.
Three hundred and eighty Salvadoran soldiers set off
for Iraq on Thursday (August 11, 2005) to join occupation forces
headed by the United States.
The men, who form the fifth contingent of the Cuscatlan
battalion, attended a special ceremony at the Comalapa Air
Force Base, 45 kilometres south of San Salvador. the
soldiers attended a special ceremony headed by Army Chief
Carlos Caceres.
"They arrive tomorrow in Kuwait and in 72 hours we
leave for Al Hilla (city in Iraq). We will arrive and
exchange positions (with the Salvdoran troops currently
there)," he said.
After boarding a 747, the soldiers will touch down in
Canada, Ireland and Kuwait before reaching Al Hilla Iraq,
100 kilometres south of Baghdad. They are expected to
arrive at the city of Hilla on Saturday (August 13).
The United States has expressed its gratitude to the
Salvadoran government for agreeing to send the fifth
contingent of the Cuscatlan battalion to Iraq.
The presence of the Salvadoran military in Iraq has
drawn sharp criticism.
Although the soldiers are officially assigned to Iraq
for six months, officials have signaled that El Salvador's
participation may wrap up before the end of the year. El
Salvador is the only Latin American country participating
in the war.
Since 2003, one Salvadoran soldier, Natividad Mendez,
has died and at least 12 others were injured in Iraq. All
the victims occurred in clashes in the southern part of the
country in April 2004.
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