El Salvador's congress has given President Mauricio Funes the green light to send 22 soldiers to Afghanistan to train Afghan troops.
The request was approved Thursday without support from legislators from Funes's leftist party.
Retired colonel Antonio Almendariz, a lawmaker with the right-wing PCN party, said the request was approved "because we believe that we can provide a lot for Afghanistan -- our soldiers are experienced, and if that experience is worth sharing, why not?"
Some 3,000 Salvadoran soldiers served at different times in the US-led occupation of Iraq between August 2003 and December 2008.
However Medardo Gonzalez with the president's FMLN party said that sending Salvadoran soldiers would be "endorsing the illogical reasons that led to the invasion of (Afghanistan)."
The Salvadoran soldiers will travel on August 28 and will remain in Afghanistan until October 2012, with an option to stay another year.
Defense Minister David Munguia asked congress to approve the request in early August.
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