Spanish troops withdrawal 'manageable' - says US commander

The top US commander in Iraq cast doubt today on whether Spain would withdraw its troops from Iraq, but added that if they did, the loss would not be “a significant military problem”.

Spain’s incoming prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, said yesterday that he would pull his nation’s 1,300 troops out of Iraq by June 30.

However, Lieut General Ricardo Sanchez, the US commander in Iraq, said the decision was “still evolving”.

Sanchez added that even if Madrid did withdraw its forces, the 150,000-strong US-led coalition “will be able to adapt”.

“It is clearly manageable. It is not a significant military problem for the coalition to be able to cover that area,” he said.

Sanchez’s remarks, made during a visit to the US military headquarters in the city of Tikrit, came a day after US-led coalition spokesman Dan Senor said Spain’s role in Iraq was “critical to our efforts here”.

The Spanish base in Iraq is in Diwaniyah, some 112 miles south of Baghdad. Spain leads the Plus Ultra brigade, a command that also includes forces from El Salvador, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.

Eleven Spaniards have died in Iraq since August, including seven intelligence agents killed in an ambush in late November.