Poland to leave Iraq by October: minister
 WARSAW - Polish forces will be out of Iraq by the middle of October, Defence Minister Bogdan Klich confirmed in a radio interview Saturday.
"At the end of June, I will hand over to the Iraqis responsibility for the whole province" of Diwaniyah, south of Baghdad, Klich told Radio RMF FM.
"It will be an important ceremony which will end our political responsibility for the whole region," he said, adding that the last Polish soldier will exit Iraq "in mid-October".
Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who came to power in October 2007, pledged a quick withdrawal from Iraq during his election campaign. The mandate of the 900 troops in the deployment was subsequently extended to the end of October 2008.
The previous conservative government of Jaroslaw Kaczynski was intent on maintaining a Polish presence in Iraq despite widespread public opposition. He was backed by his twin brother, President Lech Kaczynski.
Twenty-two Polish soldiers have died in Iraq since 2003, when Poland's then left-wing president deployed a force of 2,600 troops to Diwaniyah region in support of the US-led invasion that year.
The move drew harsh criticism in Europe, especially from Germany and France, both of which vehemently opposed the invasion. They accused Poland, which was poised to join the European Union in 2004, of betraying the bloc.
Some 1,600 Polish troops are also deployed in Afghanistan, serving with NATO's 36,000-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) which is battling a Taliban-led insurgency.
The Afghanistan mission is almost as unpopular as that in Iraq, polls show, but Tusk's government has not signalled any moves to pull out.
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