US respects withdrawal of allies from Iraq

The White House has indicated that it respected decisions by its Polish, Ukrainian and Bulgarian allies to withdraw their troops from Iraq or reduce their numbers.

The White House has indicated that it respected decisions by its Polish, Ukrainian and Bulgarian allies to withdraw their troops from Iraq or reduce their numbers.

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But White House deputy spokesman Trent Duffy declined to elaborate on how these redeployments will affect the US military presence in Iraq.

"Typically, it's as we've said all along -- a country's decision on whether, or what level to support the mission in Iraq, either with troops or with money, or with other resources, is the country's decision to make on its own," Duffy said on Tuesday. "And we respect those decisions."

"I'll decline to speculate about US troop deployments," he added.

The Polish government on Tuesday said that it will continue to keep Polish troops in Iraq through next year but their numbers will be reduced.

Ukraine and Bulgaria finished their troop pullout from Iraq on Tuesday.