Spain announced on Sunday night it was expediting the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, jolting its coalition partners after another weekend of heavy losses and setbacks.
Hours after his government was sworn in, the Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis RodrÃÂguez Zapatero, ordered an abrupt recall of Spain’s 1 300 troops, saying they would leave Iraq ”in the shortest possible time”. He said he was no longer prepared to wait until his previous deadline of June 30 because there was no sign of the UN taking control of the post-war occupation.
Miguel Moratinos, the foreign minister, was quoted by Egyptian media as saying the pullout would happen within 15 days. Defence staff have already drawn up plans, officials in the new government said last night.
The decision, though her alded after Zapatero’s election win last month, is a blow for the US-led coalition and for Tony Blair, who is trying to marshal support for greater UN involvement in Iraq.
”We obviously regret that the Spanish will be leaving,” a spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence said on Sunday night.
In Washington the Bush administration sought to play down the decision, saying Spain would remain an ally in the war against terror.
The national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, hinted that others could follow Spain’s lead, saying: ”We have 34 countries with forces on the ground. I think there are going to be some changes.”
The need for continued troop strength was underscored by heavy weekend fighting in which at least 10 US troops were killed, five in bloody clashes near the Syrian border. A British soldier was wounded in fighting in the southern city of Amara.
Paul Bremer, the US civilian administrator in Iraq, emphasised the need for a protracted muscular presence in Iraq when he said the country’s new security forces would not be in any position to deal with the insurgency still gripping parts of the country. Iraqi units have refused to help put down the uprising.
”It is clear that Iraqi forces will not be able, on their own, to deal with these threats by June 30 when an Iraqi government assumes sovereignty,” Bremer said.
”Events of the past two weeks show that Iraq still faces security threats and needs outside help to deal with them.”
Those ”security threats” spread to the remote region near the Syrian border at the weekend, when a group of marines was ambushed near Qusayba. In a gun battle with as many as 150 militants, five marines were killed and guerrilla casualties estimated at 25 dead. The US military said women and children were used as human shields.
The top US general, Richard Myers, said after the incident that Syria needed to do more to stop fighters slipping into Iraq.
Elsewhere at least another five US soldiers were killed in clashes and bombs, bringing to 99 the number killed this month.
In Madrid on Sunday night Spanish government officials said the withdrawal plan could proceed apace. They said defence staff had already drawn up plans and pointed out that it was only an 11-hour drive from the main Spanish base at Diwaniya to Kuwait.
Spain has heavy equipment, including 91 armoured vehicles and four helicopters, to evacuate and the withdrawal would, therefore, be done in several phases with extra troops sent to help.
An intense round of secret shuttle diplomacy by the new foreign minister and a senior official, José Bono, over the past few weeks saw 12 heads of state and heads of government consulted about whether a UN handover at the end of June was possible.
The officials insisted that, with Spanish troops on UN peace-keeping missions in countries ranging from Afghanistan to Kosovo and with 100 Spanish soldiers having died during such missions over the past 10 years, Spain could not be accused ofrunning away from dangerous situations.
Zapatero reminded the media that one of his campaign pledges had been to bring the soldiers home from Iraq unless the United Nations took political and military control of the situation there.
”With the information we have, and which we have gathered over the past few weeks,” he said, ”it is not foreseeable that the United Nations would adopt a resolution that satisfies Spain’s terms.” – Guardian Unlimited Â