[NYTr] Brits Complete Their Retreat from Iraq

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Prensa Latina, Havana
http://www.plenglish.com

British Retreat from Iraq

London, Sep 3 (Prensa Latina) The British  Ministry of Defense
confirmed around 500 soldiers were withdrawn from the Palace of Basra,
which may be the beginning of the end for England in Iraq.

As part of the planned transfer of power to local authorities, the
British troops moved to the airport base last night in a transfer of
power that should finish by year's end.

BBC reports that until present, the British have pulled out of three
Iraqi provinces, and from now on will only supervise training of Iraq
military.

The Sunday Times gives details on the pullout in coming months and
assures the United States is well aware of the British retreat.

The latter joined the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003, and since then
has maintained a contingent of more than 7,000 soldiers there, with 168
deaths and thousands injured.

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The New York Times - Sep 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/03/world/middleeast/03cnd-basra.html

British Army Leaves Basra

By STEPHEN FARRELL

BAGHDAD, Sept. 3 — The British Army has withdrawn from its last base in
Basra’s city center, a move that leaves Iraq’s second-largest city
without foreign forces for the first time since the American-led
invasion in 2003.

About 500 British troops left the base, Basra Palace, around 11 p.m.
local time on Sunday, turning over their main command center inside the
city to the Iraqi Army, said Gen. Mohan al-Fereiji, the commander of
Iraqi forces in Basra. He told reporters that his forces were deployed
in the palace compound.

The British prime minister, Gordon Brown, said today that the British
forces would take on an "overwatch" role but could "re-intervene" if
necessary. He added that any change in the overall number of British
troops in Iraq would "depend on the assessment of commanders on the
ground over the coming weeks and months,” according to a statement on
the prime minister’s Web site, quoting his interview with BBC Radio.

Basra residents reported overnight that they saw British military
trucks accompanied by armored vehicles and helicopters leaving the
base, Basra Palace, beside the Shatt al Arab waterway, heading for
their airport headquarters miles outside the city, the oil-industry hub
of southern Iraq.

While the British exit from Basra had been widely anticipated, the
British government has given no timetable for the eventual withdrawal
of British troops from Iraq.

The move is expected to be accompanied by a reduction in the size of
the British force in southern Iraq to 5,000 troops from 5,500.

A Ministry of Defense statement said, “U.K. forces will now operate
from their base at Basra Air Station, and will retain security
responsibility for Basra until we hand over to provincial Iraqi
control, which we anticipate in the autumn, conditions on the ground
allowing.”

The statement said the remaining British troops would continue to train
the Iraqi Security Forces, while “retaining the capability to intervene
in support of the I.S.F. should the security situation demand it.”

The downsizing became clear in recent days from palace workers and
local residents. Basra Saad al-Amery, a laundry worker at the palace
for three years, said Sunday that he was sent home 10 days earlier,
told that his job was finished.

“Six months ago we noticed that the British troops and the other
contracting companies there in the palace started to move their
equipment and vehicles outside the palace,” he said. “Most of this was
happening during the night after we went home.”

Residents living near Basra Palace have reported nighttime movements of
men and matériel over the past few months, and in recent days the Iraqi
flag has been seen flying over the palace gates for the first time, in
preparation for the building’s transfer to Iraqi government control.

The British face widespread criticism that they have abandoned Basra to
the Mahdi Army militia led by Moktada al-Sadr and other Shiite
religious militant groups that oppose the presence of foreign forces in
Iraq.

The militia is widely acknowledged to have infiltrated the security
forces and provincial ministries.

British and Iraqi officials have been eager to avoid the looting that
took place after the British evacuated other bases in the city.

British commanders have openly expressed their concern that their
withdrawal could create propaganda value for hostile forces such as the
Mahdi Army, which have attacked the palace with thousands of rockets
and mortar shells in recent months.

The British may have benefited from the timing of last week’s
announcement by Mr. Sadr that the Mahdi Army would suspend operations
for six months, after it fought with government forces in Karbala.

Nonetheless, some Iraqi officials have been openly critical of the
British decision to evacuate Basra, contending that it leaves the city
vulnerable to lawlessness and political violence.

On Sunday night, Hakim al-Mayahi, the provincial council member in
charge of the security portfolio in Basra, said: “There have been many
promises made by the British forces regarding the security problems,
but they failed to fulfill most of these. That is in addition to the
lack of support from the central government in Baghdad.

“We have a huge defect in the equipment and the arming of our security
forces. The tribes and the locals have better weapons than our security
forces, who weren’t provided with more than the usual Kalashnikovs and
R.P.G.’s while the tribes even have mortars and heavy machine guns.”

British commanders have countered that their continued presence draws
attacks and that the main problem in Basra is not an insurgency but
criminal gangs.

“General Mohan’s strategy is that we come out of the city because it
allows him to deal with the Iraqis himself without the presence of the
multinational forces, which are clearly a magnet for indirect fire at
the moment,” Brig. James Bashall, commander of the First Mechanized
Brigade, said in July. “If we are out, then it makes it easier for the
Iraqis to deal with Basra themselves.”

Around the palace, some residents spoke bitterly of the British
presence drawing errant Mahdi Army mortar fire onto their homes. Many
have abandoned shattered houses.

Hajj Muhammad Abdul Karim, 56, said his two children and two
grandchildren were killed by one mortar strike two months ago.

“My family was the victim of this chaos,” he said. “All the neighbors
kept on demanding the British troops leave the palace and go somewhere
on the periphery because it is shameful for them to involve innocent
civilians in their battle with their enemies.”

Wael Saeed, a 34-year-old sportswear shop owner, said: “We are worried
about what will happen after they leave. We might become safe from
mortars but not from killing and assassination because the gangs and
the militias will feel more free to act without the presence of the
British troops, who are the only real power that can stop them.”

[Christine Hauser contributed reporting from New York, and Iraqi
employees of The New York Times contributed reporting from Basra.]

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company