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Shiite Bloc Condemns U.S. Policy Of Recruiting Sunni Tribesmen
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, on a visit to Baghdad, announced that Britain would withdraw 1,000 troops by year's end, a nearly 20 percent decrease in forces and twice the number of troops previously expected to leave.
(By Peter Macdiarmid -- Getty Images)
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Also Tuesday, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown visited Baghdad and announced that his country would withdraw 1,000 troops from Iraq by year's end, a nearly 20 percent decrease in forces and twice the number of troops previously expected to leave.
Brown said he thought Iraqi security forces could assume full control of Basra province, in the south, in the next two months.
Speaking to reporters outside a British military compound in Baghdad, Brown said the remaining 4,500 British soldiers in Iraq would shift from a combat role to one of "overwatch," in which they would be responsible for training Iraqi security forces and remain ready to intervene if the violence in southern Iraq overwhelmed the 30,000 Iraqi troops based there.
In earlier announcements, British officials had said the size of Britain's force in Iraq would shrink by 500 by year's end.
"I believe that the 30,000 security forces that have been trained up are capable of discharging these responsibilities for security," Brown said, adding: "The final decisions will be taken based on what happens on the ground."
The drawdown of British troops, the largest contingent of foreign soldiers in Iraq after those of the United States, accelerates a movement away from a combat role in Basra, which has been the main British area of operations since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
British troops last month abandoned their sole remaining base in downtown Basra. They now conduct limited patrols, primarily around the airport and along the border with Iran, said Lt. Col. Nick Goulding, a British military spokesman.
In recent months, fierce fighting has broken out between rival Shiite militias in Iraq's south, and two provincial governors have been assassinated.
"The government welcomes the transfer of security responsibility in November," said Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih. "The drawdown is based on an assessment of the security environment in Basra."
As part of a broader effort to uproot violent Shiite militias, the U.S. military for the first time has begun direct meetings with local leaders in Baghdad's vast Shiite district of Sadr City, Odierno said Tuesday. The meetings were focused on improving security in Sadr City, where U.S. troops and Iraqi police have had only one small base, the general said.
Odierno said that he seeks eventually to establish half a dozen more bases, known as joint security stations, with Iraqi and U.S. forces in the district. "We've just started, but I am encouraged" by the talks, he said.
U.S. military officials are having similar discussions with Shiite groups in Taji, north of Baghdad, and Mahmudiyah, south of the capital, to encourage them to join the Iraqi security forces, he said.
Staff writer Ann Scott Tyson in Washington and special correspondent Saad al-Izzi in Baghdad contributed to this report.
