BAGHDAD (Agencies)
British troops have quit the city of Basra and handed control of their Basra Palace base to Iraqi troops, an Iraqi general said on Monday.
The pullout of 500 troops from Saddam Hussein's former palace in Basra is a step towards Britain handing over security control of Basra province to Iraqi forces by the year-end, paving the way for an eventual withdrawal of British forces.
Brown, who succeeded Tony Blair as prime minister in June, is aware that the Iraq conflict is an electoral liability for the ruling Labour Party and contributed to Blair's early departure.
Speculation is growing Brown could call a general election this year or next and many political commentators believe he wants British troops out of Iraq or at least Britain's involvement reduced before he goes to the polls.
Brown is under pressure from the Liberal Democrats, the second largest opposition party, to set a timetable for leaving Iraq while British media are increasingly questioning the point of a conflict that has cost the lives of 168 British soldiers.
Army officers admit Britain's military -- which has another 7,000 soldiers in Afghanistan -- is stretched to the limit.
The Basra pullout comes as U.S. President George W. Bush struggles to convince Americans that a surge in U.S. troops to 160,000 has helped quell violence.
It also comes amid increasingly bitter recriminations between former U.S. and British generals over the Iraq conflict.
Britain's foreign and defense ministers published an editorial in a U.S. newspaper last week defending Britain's role in the face of suggestions in U.S. media that British forces had failed in Basra and were set to flee.
Two retired British generals were quoted at the weekend strongly criticizing Washington, particularly former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, for a lack of post-invasion planning. |
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Differences with the U.S. The 500 British troops are expected, at least initially, to be withdrawn to Basra airport, where Britain's has 5,000 troops. But Liberal Democrat leader Menzies Campbell told the BBC he expected Brown to tell parliament in October that the British force in Iraq was being reduced by 500.
Withdrawing from Basra palace produced a "tactically more favorable position" for British forces by reducing their vulnerability to attack in the city, Tim Ripley, a defense analyst with Jane's Defense Weekly, told Reuters.
"But it widens the difference in our approach ... from our American allies who are continuing with their surge operations," he said. "We are retreating; the Americans are on the offensive."
Military analysts believe British troops will remain at Basra airport for the foreseeable future because they play a vital role in protecting the Americans' supply line.
"The issue of this withdrawal from the air base is a very highly charged political and strategic decision which will impact on Britain's relations with the U.S. at a very high level. It's not one to be taken lightly," Ripley said. |
