Germany pulls more troops from Middle East amid Iran war

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo — A German Bundeswehr instructor is seen while training foreign troops abroad, Feb. 17, 2020. (U.S. Army photo by Master Sgt. Caleb Barrieau via U.S. Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS))

BERLIN  -  Germany has pulled additional Bundeswehr troops out of the Middle East, a military spokesman told Reuters on Friday, the seventh day of a U.S.–Israeli war on Iran that has convulsed the region.

Soldiers deployed with the UNIFIL mission in Lebanon are being withdrawn due to the security situation, the spokesperson said after the Bundeswehr already sharply reduced its presence in Erbil in northern Iraq.

The RND newspaper network, which first reported the news, said that German troops stationed in Bahrain had already returned home, and preparations for withdrawals from Kuwait were underway. The spokesperson declined to comment on this.

The RND report also said that soldiers and staff from the German embassy in Baghdad were being relocated to Jordan. The foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters on the move.

Roughly 500 German soldiers are deployed across the region, mainly in Iraq and Jordan. Officials have recently moved personnel out of camps and reduced some contingents amid heightened security risks.

(Reporting by Markus Wacket, Writing by Friederike HeineEditing by Ludwig Burger // REUTERS)