Georgia will send a 207-person peacekeeping contingent to Iraq in early February, Defense Minister Lieutenant General David Tevzadze told journalists on 7 January. Some 70 Georgian officers, including 20 medical personnel, were deployed to Iraq in August 2003, where they are serving in Tikrit in the U.S. sector. Tevzadze said the new contingent will not include any medical personnel. Unidentified Georgian Defense Ministry sources said that the new contingent will be commanded by a colonel who was expelled from a training course at the U.S.-funded George Marshall Center in southern Germany for assaulting a U.S. serviceman. On 13 December, U.S. Ambassador to Tbilisi Richard Miles said the Georgian peacekeeping contingent in Iraq will expand to 500 men by the summer of 2004. (Caucasus Press)