The command of the Polish-led multinational force in Iraq will move out of a camp that includes ancient Babylonian archaeological sites by year's end, Poland's defense minister said Sunday during a surprise visit to the troops.
Jerzy Szmajdzinski said the force's command at Camp Babylon and a base in Karbala housing Polish and Bulgarian troops will be moved south to Camp Echo, a base near Diwaniyah now used by U.S. Marines.
"We are moving the force's headquarters there, and a Polish-Bulgarian brigade from Karbala, to give Babylon, which is the world's cultural heritage, back to the Iraqis," Szmajdzinski said on TVN24 Television.
Iraqi authorities asked the Poles to move because of concerns that the presence of troops, helicopters and heavy equipment could damage the site of the ancient city of Babylon.
Some 2,500 Polish and U.S. troops are based at Camp Babylon. They are part of a 6,000-strong multinational security force in central Iraq commanded by the Poles.
The move should be completed by mid-December, and Iraqi archaeological police will take over full control there, Lt. Col. Artur Domanski, spokesman for the 15-nation force, said from Iraq.
Szmajdzinski made a surprise visit to Diwaniyah and Camp Babylon a day after coalition defense ministers met with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld aboard an aircraft carrier in the Gulf.
Szmajdzinski addressing concerns that rising violence may exclude some areas from parliamentary elections scheduled for January, saying after his talks with Rumsfeld there was a chance the vote would be held in all of Iraq, the Polish news agency PAP reported.
Rising violence in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City and in Fallujah, the main insurgent bastion west of the capital, has raised questions about holding a vote in these areas.
Warsaw has said it is considering withdrawing its troops from Iraq in late 2005 with the hopes that elections bring stability to Iraq.
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