Multinational Troops Hit In Iraq Polish

Multinational Troops Hit in Iraq; Polish Officer, 6 Ukrainians Wounded

The Polish military announced Friday that the multinational force under its command, which includes Bulgarians, Kazakhstanis, Spanish, Ukrainians, Dominicans, etc., patrolling the south-center part of the country, was the target of 36 attacks on Thursday, resulting in the killing of a high Polish officer and the wounding of six Ukrainians. Another spokesman admitted there had been a machine gun attack on a multinational force helicopter in late October that had not resulted in casualties.

As I noted earlier, the multinational support in Iraq is soft, and the publics of those countries are often deeply unhappy about the deployments. Some countries, like Thailand, are leaving. If casualities rise, the 9,000 multinationals may well pull out, leaving the US even more over-stretched in Iraq.