Spain Orders Troops Home ASAP

Spain's prime minister said Sunday he had ordered Spanish troops withdrawn from Iraq as soon as possible, saying there is no sign that his terms for their staying — U.N. control of the occupation — will be met.

In an unexpected announcement, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said he had ordered the Defense Minister Jose Bono to "do what is necessary for the Spanish troops stationed in Iraq return home in the shortest time possible."

Zapatero spoke just hours after 16 Cabinet members with the new Socialist government were sworn in. His party won March 14 general elections, three days after 191 people were killed in commuter-train terror bombings in Madrid.

The Spanish-led brigade in southern Iraq is based in Diwaniyah and Najaf, the headquarters of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. U.S. troops have vowed to capture or kill al-Sadr. Sadr refuses to disband his militia, which has clashed with coalition troops in the region over the past few weeks, says CBS News Reporter Lisa Barron.

If the 2,500 U.S. troops surrounding Najaf move in to arrest Sadr, his followers have warned of an all out war, which would put the Spanish troops in great danger.

While Zapatero had run for office on a promise to withdraw Spanish forces from the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, the timing of the announcement was unexpected.

Zapatero noted that one of his campaign pledges was to bring the 1,300 troops home unless the United Nations took political and military control of the situation there.

"With the information we have, and which we have gathered over the past few weeks, it is not foreseeable that the United Nations will adopt a resolution" that satisfies Spain's terms, Zapatero said.

"These circumstances have led me to take the decision to order the return of our troops with the maximum safety and thus in the shortest time possible," Zapatero said.

"More than anything, this decision reflects my desire to keep the promise I made to the Spanish people more than a year ago," he said.