Bulgaria plans to remove its 150 soldiers from Iraq by the end of December, officials said this week, United Press International (UPI) reported. Dimitar Dabor, who heads the Parliamentary Committee on Defense, said no replacement troops will be sent to join Bulgarian Coalition forces still in Iraq, the Sofia News Agency reported. The Bulgarian contingent is responsible for guarding an Iranian refugee camp in Ashraf. Bulgaria sent 500 soldiers to Iraq after the U.S.-led coalition in 2003. The number was cut to 150 in 2006. A total of 11 Bulgarians have been killed in Iraq, five of them in an attack on a base in Karbala in December 2003.
