London – British soldiers began withdrawing Sunday from their final remaining base inside the southern Iraqi city of Basra, a move likely to prompt a further reduction in troop numbers, lawmakers and officials said.
Around 550 soldiers stationed in Basra Palace were leaving the downtown site to join 5,000 other personnel at an air-base camp on the fringes of the city – ending their permanent presence in Iraq’s second-largest city.
The Iraqi military sent hundreds of reinforcements to the city to prevent Shiite militias and criminal gangs from expanding their influence now that the British have gone.
The decision to leave the palace compound – targeted with daily mortar and rocket attacks in recent months – will hand military commanders an option of pulling about 550 troops out of Iraq in the fall, lawmakers said.
“We’re withdrawing personnel,” said a British defense-ministry spokesman on customary condition of anonymity. “It’s been our long-planned intention to leave the palace.”
Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is due to set out strategy for British operations in Iraq in a speech to Parliament next month, was aware of the operation, a government official said.
Decisions made this year by ex-leader Tony Blair to reduce Britain’s troops numbers in Iraq from 7,000 to 5,500 left an option of pulling out around 500 more personnel once the Basra Palace base was handed back to Iraqis.
“It has always been our intention to draw down troops in Basra” as Iraqi army and police become ready to handle security duties, said a spokesman for Brown’s Downing Street office, speaking on condition of anonymity.
In Basra, Maj. Mike Shearer, Britain’s military spokesman, said he could not disclose details of the withdrawal.
