El Salvador preparing to send 360 troops to Iraq via Kuwait

SAN SALVADOR (AFP) Jul 16, 2003
El Salvador will send 360 troops to Kuwait late next week for initial training before joining the US-led multinational force in Iraq, an army spokesman said Wednesday.

"Different units have already been involved in preparations adapted to missions awaiting them," said Salvadoran special forces commander Colonel Julio Cesar Aravelo, explaining the troops would remain in Kuwait until August

From September 1, the Salvadoran contingent -- whose mission lasts six months -- will be deployed in Najaf, some 180 kilometers (110 miles) south of Baghdad.

According to Colonel Aravelo, several units from the contingent, under Spanish General Alfredo Cardona Torres, will join troops from the multinational force in Karbala, Al Hillah and Al Khdir in central Iraq.

In all, more than 1,200 troops from El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic will form the "Plus Ultra" brigade in which 1,200 Spanish troops will also participate.

The Salvadoran troops will be paid 125 dollars per month and the colonel commanding them will get 400 dollars a month, according to Salvador's "Prensa Grafica" newspaper.

WAR.WIRE