By Thomas Harding and Toby Harnden
The Telegraph, 11 January 2007
Thousands of British troops will return home from Iraq by the end of May, The Daily Telegraph can reveal today.
Tony Blair will announce within the next fortnight that almost 3,000 troops are to be cut from the current total of 7,200, allowing the military to recover from four years of battle that have left it severely overstretched.
In what will be the first substantial cut of British troops serving in southern Iraq, their number will drop to 4,500 on May 31. The announcement will be made by the Prime Minister before he steps down from office as an intended signal of the achievements the British have made in Iraq — albeit at the cost of 128 dead.
The plans for the British withdrawal were revealed as President George W Bush announced that he was sending an additional 21,500 troops into Iraq.
The primary objective of the five brigades and two US marine battalions is to curtail sectarian violence in Baghdad and target Sunni insurgent strongholds in western Anbar province.
His high-stakes, prime-time television address to Americans last night signalled a stark divergence of policy on Iraq with that of his British allies.
The long-awaited "surge" strategy, bitterly opposed by Democrats and many Republicans, was to be accompanied by a massive influx of American cash for reconstruction and a commitment from the Iraq government to send three brigades into Baghdad.
A senior British officer serving in Iraq said yesterday: "The US situation appears to be getting worse because they are sending more troops while the British are getting out of Basra. But the situation is different, with the Americans facing a gargantuan problem of sectarian violence."
Although British politicians and senior commanders have speculated on the timing and number of soldiers to be withdrawn from southern Iraq, the precise timetable for the UK withdrawal has been disclosed to The Daily Telegraph. Unless there are "major hiccups" in the next few months, 1 Mechanised Brigade will enter Iraq with a much reduced force when it replaces 19 Light Brigade in June for its six-month tour.
Military planners are drawing up force levels for when Basra comes under "provincial Iraqi control" at the end of spring, when all security will be handed over to the Iraqi police and army.
The British Army will then position its troops at a major base that is being expanded at Basra air station, five miles west of the city, where they will be on standby. A small force of 200 men will be left in central Basra.
By the end of February the volatile Maysan province, patrolled by the 600-strong battle group of the Queen's Royal Lancers, will be handed over to the local authorities.
Mr Bush's speech represented an effective rejection of the independent Iraq Study Group report presented last month. He faces deep scepticism from Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill, who could eventually cut off money for the war.
Senator Richard Lugar, Republican chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, said: "The president and his team need to explain what objectives we are trying to achieve if forces are expanded."
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Citation: Thomas Harding and Toby Harnden. "3,000 British troops to pull out of Iraq by May," The Telegraph, 11 January 2007.
Original URL: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/11/wiraq11.xml
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