The Joint Chiefs of Staff announced the departure of noncombat troops for Iraq Wednesday, meant to relieve a South Korean unit that has been stationed in the Middle East nation.

The Joint Chiefs said a total of 296 troops were the first batch of the 466-strong unit of army engineers and medics that will replace the 575-member South Korean unit currently in Iraq to help U.S.-led coalition forces rebuild the war-torn country.

It added that a second dispatch of fresh troops will leave the nation a week later.

The troops already in Iraq will return home in two groups, this Thursday and the next.

The Korean engineers and medics will be deployed for a six-month tour of duty.

The army added that fewer troops are being sent to Iraq as the need for administrative and security personnel has decreased after engineering and medical personnel began using the same camp.

South Korea is currently under American pressure to send thousands of combat-ready troops to Iraq, to bolster the security presence in the war-torn country.

A series of recent media polls have revealed that most South Koreans oppose such a dispatch.