Iraqis welcome British pullout
by Karim Jamil
Iraqis in the southern port city of Basra welcomed the news on Wednesday that British Prime Minister Tony Blair was about to announce a timetable for the withdrawal of his country's troops.
British forces have been based in Basra, Iraq's second largest city, since the US-led invasion of March 2003, fighting insurgents and illegal militia forces bent on controlling the region's lucrative oil industry.
They have not faced the same vicious sectarian tensions that dog American attempts to impose order further north, for Basra is a largely Shiite city.
But the 7,200-strong force has nevertheless faced stiff opposition from political and tribal militias and more than 130 British soldiers have died.
Now, officers say, they plan to pull out of three bases in the city itself and a logistics base in Shuaiba outside the town, and gradually concentrate their forces at their headquarters at Basra airport.
Blair was due to make an announcement in London which press reports predicted would reveal that 1,500 troops would go home within weeks and the rest of the force by the end of next year.
"We welcome any withdrawal of British forces from inside the centre of the city," said Hakim al-Mayahi, head of the Basra provincial security council, which has had a fractious relationship with the British. |
