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lennart
17-08-03, 14:01
Troops may be pulled from Iraq

Withdrawal mulled in wake of escalating violence in Basra

By Kevin Livingston
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
(August 14, 2003)


Defense Minister Miroslav Kostelka said he will consider withdrawing troops from the Army's 7th Field Hospital if the security situation in the southern Iraqi city of Basra continues to get worse.

Even in the country's more-stable south, violence against coalition troops has increased recently as temperatures have soared and fuel and electricity have grown sparse.

Czech soldiers fired weapons in the air Aug. 10 to disperse an angry crowd that had blocked a convoy carrying drinking water to the hospital. Stones were thrown at the vehicles, and some soldiers received minor injuries.

In separate incidents, an Iraqi man was killed when he attempted to jump on a garbage truck and fell and another crowd attacked two Czech vehicles that were returning from British Command headquarters. On July 23, a patient was injured when shots were fired at the hospital.

"If the situation were suddenly and sharply to worsen such that the field hospital would be directly threatened, it is possible that measures would be taken that would involve at least some of the personnel being withdrawn," Kostelka told reporters Aug 11.

No Czech troops have been killed since the hospital was deployed to the war-torn country May 18, but the recent violence has prompted hospital commander Mojmir Mrva to tighten security and temporarily block Iraqis from receiving treatment, said Andrej Cirtek of the Defense Ministry's press department.

Mrva said the violence was likely the work of religious extremists. He added, however, that the situation was improving. "It seems [to be] slowly calming down," he told the Czech News Agency.

Cirtek said that the hospital is again treating local patients and that 83 Iraqis were given care on Aug. 11.

The Army has 312 soldiers manning the hospital, which has treated almost 5,000 patients since it was set up following the end of major combat operations in May. The troops operate in the British-controlled zone along with Italian, Danish and Dutch forces.

Kostelka plans to ask Parliament to extend the hospital's stay by two to three months. The mission is scheduled to run until the end of the year.
http://www.praguepost.com/P03/2003/Art/0814/news3.php