WELLINGTON: New Zealand announced on Monday that it will withdraw all of its troops from Iraq by next June. The training mission is a joint operation with Australia, which has about 300 troops stationed at Taji. New Zealand’s Defence Minister Ron Mark said Australia also planned to downsize its presence in Iraq, although he didn’t offer any details. The 2015 decision on New Zealand’s Iraq deployment was made by the conservative government at the time, and was opposed by Ardern’s then-opposition Labour Party. Ardern said her government did not withdraw the troops sooner because it was honouring commitments made to both Iraq and Australia.

Source: Pakistan Today June 11, 2019 02:15 UTC