A senior U.S. military official thanked Kazakhstan on Friday for sending troops to Iraq and said America and the former Soviet republic intend to expand military cooperation. Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard B. Myers met with Kazakh military officials to discuss strengthening military ties, the Kazakh deployment in Iraq and future U.S. security assistance to the Central Asian nation, the U.S. Embassy said in a statement. Myers called the meetings "very productive" and said he and his Kazakh counterpart, Maj. Gen. Bulat Darbekov, had agreed to work together to expand military ties. Myers praised Kazakhstan's 27-strong contingent of military engineers in Iraq, calling their contribution "tremendous and valuable." He said Kazakh soldiers had defused more than 2.5 million explosive devices in Iraq since their deployment last year.
