The last Salvadoran troops are home from Iraq, ending Latin America's military presence there, according to AP. Five Salvadoran soldiers were killed and 20 wounded over the country's five-year deployment. Defense Minister Jorge Alberto Molina and relatives greeted 200 soldiers Saturday at an army base outside the capital of San Salvador. They had been based near the southeastern Shiite city of Kut. President Tony Saca had said El Salvador's troops would leave after the Dec. 31 expiration of a U.N. resolution authorizing the international coalition in Iraq. Saca's conservative government was a staunch ally of the Bush administration. Salvadoran troops stayed in Iraq years after Honduran, Dominican and Nicaraguan soldiers left.
