Posted on 10/30/2007 1:54:37 PM PDT by blam
Iraqis to take control of Basra province
Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Last Updated: 8:39pm GMT 30/10/2007
British forces are to transfer responsibility for security in Basra province to Iraq’s government in December, it has been announced.
UK troops withdrew from Basra city in September
Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, and David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said that after a formal handover ceremony British troops would be "in overwatch" in the region while the Iraqi police and army take on greater responsibility for security on the ground.
Mr Browne is expected to agree a date in mid-December for the handover of the last Iraqi province still under British control when he meets the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, in Baghdad on Wednesday. About 1,000 British troops are already due to leave southern Iraq by Christmas.
"As always it’s a date that depends on circumstances on the ground but mid-December is the aiming point now for the handover," said a Foreign Office official. "That’s what we’ll be working for."
Agreement between London and Baghdad on a target date is crucial to Downing Street’s hopes for an accelerated troop withdrawal from Iraq. British forces have turned over three of four southern Iraqi provinces originally under UK command to provincial Iraqi control.
"The decision to hand over any of the provinces is not made lightly and a rigorous assessment of both the prospects for enduring security and the capabilities of the Iraqi authorities has been conducted," said a joint statement issued by Mr Browne and Mr Miliband.
"Following the formal handover ceremony in December, UK and coalition forces will be in overwatch across the whole of southern Iraq."
Last month the Army pulled out of its last base in urban Basra, turning over the country’s second largest city to the Iraqi army.
Gordon Brown later announced that British troop levels would be cut by 1,000 before Christmas.
In January another 500 are slated to leave and a further 1,500 are to be pulled out by the middle of next year, leaving just 2,500 troops in southern Iraq.
Officials claim attacks on British forces fell by 90 per cent after troops were pulled back to Basra airbase, where the UK contingent maintains an overwatch position, ready to intervene if Iraqi forces lose control.
Mr Browne praised UK troops engaged in training the Iraqi army during a visit to Basra on Tuesday.
He said the training effort was vital to meet the year-end deadline for handing over provincial responsibility.
"I am very grateful for the work that the Irish Guards have done in Iraq, training up the Iraqi Security Forces, and ensuring that increasingly, they are capable of taking responsibility for security in south-east Iraq," he said.
"This work is vitally important and is helping to set the conditions necessary for Multi National Forces to hand over Basra to Provincial Iraqi Control at the end of this year."
If all goes to plan, Basra province will be the ninth of Iraq’s 18 provinces to revert to domestic control. Mr Maliki has vented his frustration at the slow pace of training Iraq’s security services, claiming this is hampering the resumption of Iraqi sovereignty.
Mr Miliband also announced details of a scheme to allow Iraqi employees of the British Government to move to the UK.
Serving staff or long-serving former employees will be able to apply for a one-off lump sum of up to 12 months’ salary, or exceptional leave to enter the UK outside the immigration rules, or a refugee resettlement package in the UK for those who have been forced to flee Iraq.
But Harry Reid told me the war in Iraq was lost. Are you saying he’s lying?
And the media told me that Basra had fallen into a total state of lawlessness. I am so confused...
Basra will soon be calling for the return of the Scottish Highland Regiments , who got along with the locals quite well, save for the odd pot shot and some mortar titillation.
Different story from what was said yesterday...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1917616/posts?page=1
The troops represent an overall increase in the size of the force in Iraq despite the pledge by Gordon Brown this month, when “election fever” was at its height, that 1,000 troops would be home by Christmas.
It later emerged that half of them had already returned while the others would not even be setting foot in Iraq. Now 250 paratroopers from the Special Forces Support Group have been warned they will be spending Christmas in Basra. They will be joined by the 600 men of the 1st Battalion The Royal Welsh Regiment, which is based in Cyprus.
The net result will be a temporary addition of 850 to the force of 5,000 troops in Iraq.
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