| Spain’s top military officer in Iraq, Jose de Enrique Ayala, rejected calls by the U.S. command to suppress the uprising in Najaf in April, Spanish newspapers reported Tuesday. Ayala said Spanish troops weren’t equipped to launch an offensive against Moqtada al-Sadr’s militias and told U.S. commanders that Spain’s was a peace- keeping force, ABC newspaper reported. The U.S. intervention to suppress the uprising in the central region of Iraq controlled by Spanish and Polish forces was carried out without "us agreeing or understanding (the reason for the action)," Ayala was reported as saying by the newspaper. Separately, El Pais said these events were "decisive" in the Spanish government’s decision to pull its troops out of Iraq ahead of schedule. |