Free Republic

WARSAW, Poland - Poland will cut its troop strength in Iraq by nearly a third in February as part of long-standing plans to reduce its presence there, the government said Tuesday. Poland's 2,400-member contingent will be cut to 1,700 from mid-February, with 700 soldiers remaining on standby in Poland, Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski told a news conference. Poland, a staunch U.S. ally on Iraq, commands an international stabilization force of about 6,000 troops in central Iraq. The cuts will come as part of a regular troop rotation due to begin in early January, but Szmajdzinski stressed that troop levels will...

WARSAW (AFP) - Three Polish soldiers were killed and four others injured in a helicopter accident near the Iraqi capital Baghdad, army officials said. "The helicopter made an emergency landing eight kilometers (five miles) from Kerbala. Three soldiers died and four were injured," army chief-of-staff Colonel Zdzislaw Gnatowski told AFP. "We are awaiting information on the condition of the soldiers hospitalized in Baghdad and Kerbala," he added. "The cause of the accident is still unknown but everything points to a technical failure of the helicopter which was on a routine patrol." The incident brings to 20 the number of Poles...