BiH troops to leave Iraq this year

15/10/2008

The BiH Armed Forces will terminate their deployment in Iraq this year, but they are preparing staff officers for individual duties in NATO's operation in Afghanistan.

By Antonio Prlenda for Southeast European Times in Sarajevo – 15/10/08

BiH's explosive ordnance disposal technicians work at one of the former munition sites in southern Iraq. [Antonio Prlenda]

Three and a half years after its first deployment in Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) are finishing their mission there.

According to the BiH defence ministry, coalition forces in Iraq recently calculated BiH's participation in the operation is no longer necessary. The coalition decided only the US and United Kingdom troops, with four other major allies' forces, will stay in Iraq after December 1st.

"The Iraqi government is now able to provide the security that was provided by the Armed Forces of BiH," the US Embassy said. "It is important to underscore that BiH made a meaningful contribution to coalition efforts in Iraq."

The BiH military contingent in Iraq currently consists of two platoons -- the eighth rotation of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Platoon at Echo Base near Al-Diwaniyah and the first rotation of the Infantry Platoon at Camp Victory near Baghdad. Each of the units has approximately 35 professional soldiers who volunteered for the six-month shift in Iraq.

None of the troops died during the deployment. The acting chief of the BiH Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Miladin Milojcic, said this record attests to high-quality training and careful preparations for each rotation.

"We are proud of all the compliments that we get from our coalition partners about our soldiers in Iraq," Milojcic said.

Since mid-2005, the BiH EOD technicians have served in Camp Taqaddum at Fallujah, Tallil Base near Nasiriyah and Echo Base at Al-Diwaniyah. Their mission has been to identify, dispose of and destroy conventional unexploded ordnance (UXO), thus reducing the insurgents' ability to make improvised explosive devices. The Infantry Platoon arrived in August this year at Camp Victory, which it guards. Its mission is the first combat infantry deployment for the BiH Armed Forces in an international military operation.

Both platoons will finish their shift no later than December 15th. This will end the BiH's deployment in Iraq, leaving the observer mission in Congo as the only international military operation in which the BiH Armed Forces currently participate.

However, up to ten BiH staff officers, pending parliamentary approval, will soon begin specialised training for deployment with NATO's International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) in Afghanistan.

"At this stage, we have been asked to send only the individual staff officers. But UXO removal and guard duties remain our niche capabilities that we are ready to perform, clearing our path to membership in NATO," Milojcic said.

"The US is happy that BiH can be a provider of security rather than consumer of security," the US Embassy concluded.