A fresh battalion of Georgian troops left for Kuwait on Tuesday, en route to join hundreds of their comrades already serving in Iraq. Georgia sent 300 troops to Iraq in November as part of President Mikhail Saakashvili's policy to cultivate closer ties with the United States. The 550 soldiers who left on Tuesday were slated to guard United Nations facilities, said Col. Levan Nikoleishvili, the Army chief of staff. Fifty other Georgians were accompanying them to serve as interpreters, communications engineers and other auxiliary staff. "My main order to you is to fulfill the task set and come back home alive and in good health," Nikoleishvili told the troops gathered at the Vaziani military base, 28 kilometers (17 miles) east of the capital Tbilisi.
