Denmark – Iraq

Denmark has secretly airlifted about 200 Iraqi employees and their relatives out of Iraq to prevent them from being killed after the Danes withdraw their ground forces later this summer, the Danish government said Friday.

Interpreters and other employees of foreign forces are prime targets for Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias who accuse them of being collaborators with the Americans.

The last of three secret flights departed Friday before dawn with 80 Iraqis on board, Jakob Winther, a Defense Ministry spokesman, told The Associated Press.

Last month, Denmark’s center-right government said it would offer visas to Iraqi employees who wanted to apply for asylum.

“Out of concern for the interpreters and their families’ security as well as the security of the Danish base in Iraq, the Defense Ministry has chosen to inform the public after the interpreters and others had left Iraq,” the ministry said.