Iraqi troops have taken over the checkpoints guarded by Georgian soldiers who pulled out of Iraq to rush home for the war against Russia, the U.S. military said on Friday. The U.S. army transported the 2,000 Georgian soldiers back home because of the war over the region of South Ossetia.
The Georgians were mainly deployed in Iraq's southern Wasit province, manning checkpoints near the border with Iran. "Right now, the Iraqi soldiers have taken over the responsibility of the traffic control point," 2nd Lieutenant Charlie Hines, U.S. military liaison with Iraqi forces at the base in the area, said, according to Reuters.
"We are going to train them to be able to take over the entire patrol base, go and do presence patrols and set up temporary traffic control points in our area."
Five Georgian soldiers died in Iraq, all in the last two years.
