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US says ready to step back
into Basra as British pull out
AFP
Friday Aug 31, 2007
The US
military is ready to intervene in southern Iraq to quell any unrest
as British forces prepare to pull out from their last base in
the oil port of Basra, the Pentagon said Thursday.
Press reports in London suggest that the British departure and
handover of security control to Iraqi forces may be imminent,
although the official line is that it will take place before the
end of the year.
US forces will not allow any security advances in southern Iraq
to be abandoned, Brigadier General Richard Sherlock, deputy director
for operational planning at the Department of Defense, told reporters.
As requirements on the ground dictate, "they will reposition
forces with the battlefield geography in mind so that they don't
give up gains that they've made in different areas, including
in Basra and the south," he said.
(Article continues below)
"As the UK forces reposition ... all that will be taken
into account as well as what the security needs for each region
are," Sherlock said.
When the 500 British troops evacuate a former palace of Saddam
Hussein in Basra and withdraw to a desert airbase, they will leave
behind a city in the grip of a brutal turf war between rival militia.
Nevertheless, Iraqi forces and war-weary civilians are hopeful
that the redeployment, which will leave just 5,000 British troops
in the country to train and support Iraqi forces, will herald
a new start for Basra.
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