Bulgaria sent on Thursday new units of peacekeepers to Iraq and Kosovo, relieving the troops that started their tour of duty in July, the country's defence ministry said.

Bulgaria's fifth non-combat unit to guard the Ashraf refugee camp north of Baghdad left for Iraq from Shumen.

Bulgaria has roughly 400 military personnel in the Middle Eastern country, and is part of the US-led coalition that toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein.

Also on Thursday, the fourth engineering platoon that is part of the Kosovo international peacekeeping force KFOR left from Plovdiv.

Bulgaria also has peacekeepers in Bosnia Herzegovina, where troops were involved in a series of disciplinary breaches in recent months, prompting sharp criticism from the army chief of staff gen. Zlatan Stoykov.

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