Most U.K. troops out of Iraq by spring

[unhappycamper]

Most U.K. troops out of Iraq by spring
The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Aug 14, 2008 21:11:26 EDT

LONDON — Most of Britain’s 4,100-strong contingent in Iraq will be withdrawn over the next nine months, leaving only a few hundred soldiers there, The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported.

In its Friday edition, a preview of which was made available Thursday, the paper cited unnamed “senior defense sources” as saying that the majority of the British troops would leave the country by the end of spring 2009.

In July, Prime Minister Gordon Brown promised a major troop withdrawal in the early months of 2009, but Britain’s military said Thursday that it was premature to discuss specific figures.

“Although it is hoped that the U.K. military presence in Iraq will decrease significantly in the future, it is still too early to discuss the size and shape of a reduced U.K. forces’ footprint,” the military said in a statement.

Britain’s forces are mostly based near the southern Iraqi city of Basra. The Guardian newspaper Friday quoted Maj. Gen. White-Spunner, who just returned from a six-month tour in southern Iraq, as saying that the city’s port was booming, that property prices were rising, and that locals were convinced that militias would not return.


Article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/08/ap_britain_iraq_081408/