Danish Defense Minister Soeren Gade and 12 lawmakers made an unannounced visit to southern Iraq this week to meet some of Denmark's 501 soldiers there, the army said Friday. Gade and members of the Danish parliament's defense and foreign police committees arrived Wednesday in Basra, 400 kilometers (250 miles) southeast of Baghdad, where the Danish troops are based. "As politicians it is important for us to get impressions from the site and, at the same time, show the troops that we care for them," Gade said in a statement released Friday by Army Operational Command Denmark. The soldiers' six-month deployment ends in late June and is likely to be renewed.
