Britain to cut troop levels in Iraq

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-11-1999
Britain to cut troop levels in Iraq
6
Mon, 09-20-2004 - 12:20am
The "Coalition Forces" in Iraq are vanishing. Non-U.S. forces represent less than 8% of the total occupation force now.

Britain to cut troop levels in Iraq next month despite the deteriorating security situation in much of the country.

Jason Burke, chief reporter Sunday September 19, 2004 The Observer

The British Army is to start pulling troops out of Iraq next month despite the deteriorating security situation in much of the country, The Observer has learnt.

The main British combat force in Iraq, about 5,000-strong, will be reduced by around a third by the end of October during a routine rotation of units.

The news came amid another day of mayhem in Iraq, which saw a suicide bomber kill at least 23 people and injure 53 in the northern city of Kirkuk. The victims were queueing to join Iraq's National Guard.

More than 200 people were killed last week in one of the bloodiest weeks since last year's invasion, strengthening impressions that the country is spinning out of control.

Yesterday grim footage apparently showing a British engineer kidnapped from a house in Baghdad last week along with two American colleagues surfaced in a video released in the Iraqi capital. The group holding the three threatened to execute them unless Iraqi women prisoners are released from jail.

And last night it was reported that 10 more staff working for an American-Turkish company had been seized as hostages.

There are now fears that scheduled Iraqi elections in January will have to be delayed because of the growing instability.

Last week Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, said that more troops could be sent to safeguard the polls if necessary, although Whitehall sources said there was no guarantee that they would be British.

The forthcoming 'drawdown' of British troops in Basra has not been made public and is likely to provoke consternation in both Washington and Baghdad. Many in Iraq argue that more, not fewer, troops are needed. Last week British troops in Basra fought fierce battles with Shia militia groups.

The reduction will take place when the First Mechanised Infantry Brigade is replaced by the Fourth Armoured Division, now based in Germany, in a routine rotation over the next few weeks.

Troop numbers are being finalised, but, military sources in Iraq and in Whitehall say, they are likely to be 'substantially less' than the current total in Basra: the new combat brigade will have five or even four battle groups, against its current strength of six battle groups of around 800 men.

A military spokesman in Basra confirmed the scaling back of the British commitment.

Currently there are 8,000 British troops in the 14,000-strong 'multinational division' in southern Iraq, which has responsibility for about 4.5 million people.

full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1307980,00.html

dablacksox


Cynic: a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.---Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-11-2003
Mon, 09-20-2004 - 12:23am
its a lie, the guardian is the dan rather of news in europe .
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-11-1999
Mon, 09-20-2004 - 12:29am
Maybe the Guardian's been endorsed by NAMBLA.

But why wouldn't the Brits pull out? The "Mission's Accomplished".

We'll know in a month, won't we.

dablacksox


Cynic: a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.---Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2004
Mon, 09-20-2004 - 11:12am
NAMBLA sure is endorsing a lot of people, aren't they.
Avatar for momeebear
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Mon, 09-20-2004 - 11:53am
<>

LOL!!!!

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-28-2004
Mon, 09-20-2004 - 12:01pm
Bush is much worse than the Dan Rather of politicians
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2004
Tue, 09-21-2004 - 10:48am
I thought the BBC was the CBS of British news....