SOFIA (AFP) — The Bulgarian parliament gave the green light Friday to government proposals to shift the country's 155-strong military contingent in Iraq to Baghdad, following the closure of the Ashraf refugee camp.
Parliament also reaffirmed a previous decision to keep the Bulgarian peacekeepers in Iraq until end-2008.
At the end of May, Sofia had proposed shifting troops from Ashraf, 60 kilometres (35 miless) north of Baghdad, to Camp Cropper near Baghdad airport where they would guard detainees undergoing a social reintegration programme.
The transfer is to be carried out by July 10, parliament decided.
Bulgaria's centre-left government withdrew a 360-strong military contingent from Iraq in 2005 after losing 13 soldiers and six civilians in the war-torn country.
But three months later it returned to the US-led coalition, dispatching a 155-strong contingent on a "peacekeeping and humanitarian mission."
Bulgaria also has around 420 troops in NATO's 50,000-strong International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, and this week the government decided to boost its contribution by another 70 troops.
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