"South Korea Troops Deployed to Iraq"

[GreenPartyVoter]

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - About 2,800 South Korean troops have completed deployment to northern Iraq to become the third largest coalition partner after the United States and Britain, officials said Wednesday.

South Korea began the dispatch on Aug. 3, shipping troops first to Kuwait, where they trained for operations. On Sept. 3, the troops began traveling to the Kurdish town of Irbil by land and air.

Maj. Gen. Song Ki-seok, a top operations officer at Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the deployment had been completed on Wednesday without incident.

The South Korean convoys found and removed two crudely made explosives planted on their route, but could not determine whether the devices were targeted at their troops, Song said during a news conference.

http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20040922/D858KA400.html