Escalating Violence in Iraq

Britain to cut thousands of troops in Iraq next year

(AFP)
Updated: 2006-11-28 10:58

LONDON - Britain said it expected to withdraw thousands of its 7,100 troops from Iraq by the end of 2007, in the clearest pledge yet of a pullout from a country gripped by growing sectarian violence.

British soldiers carry out a night patrol on the perimeter of Basra Airport Base in southern Iraq, in 2005. Britain said it expected to withdraw thousands of its 7,100 troops from Iraq by the end of 2007, in the clearest pledge yet of a pullout from a country gripped by growing sectarian violence.[AFP]

Other members of the dwindling US-led coalition echoed those moves as Italy said its 60 to 70 remaining troops would be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of this week and Poland promised to pull its 880 troops out by late next year.

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In a key policy speech in London, British Defense Secretary Des Browne said: "I can tell you that by the end of next year, I expect numbers of British forces in Iraq to be significantly lower, by a matter of thousands."

Britain currently has some 7,100 troops deployed in southern Iraq, three years after supporting the 2003 US-led invasion, but like the US administration has faced growing public pressure to withdraw its forces.

In Washington, officials said this month that US military leaders are drawing up plans to embed more military trainers with Iraqi forces in what is shaping up as a last-ditch push to get Iraqis to halt a slide toward civil war.