1,000 British troops to leave Basra

BAGHDAD - Britain's prime minister, Gordon Brown, announced yesterday that his country would withdraw 1,000 troops from Iraq by year's end, a nearly 20 percent decrease in forces and twice the number of troops previously expected to leave. Brown said he thought Iraqi security forces could assume full control of Basra, a major southern city, in the next two months.

Speaking to reporters outside a British military compound in Baghdad, Brown said the remaining 4,500 British soldiers in Iraq would transition from a combat role to one of "overwatch," where they would be responsible for training Iraqi security forces and remain ready to intervene if the violence in southern Iraq overwhelmed the 30,000 Iraqi troops in the region.

In earlier announcements, British officials had said the size of their force in Iraq would shrink by 500 troops over the rest of this year.

"I believe that the 30,000 [Iraqi] security forces that have been trained up are capable of discharging these responsibilities for security," Brown said, while adding: "The final decisions will be taken based on what happens on the ground."

The drawdown of British troops, the largest contingent of foreign soldiers in Iraq besides those of the United States, accelerates a movement away from a combat role in Basra, a port city that has been the main British area of operations.

British troops last month abandoned their last base in downtown Basra. They have limited patrols, primarily to around the airport and along the border with Iran, said Lieutenant Colonel Nick Goulding, a British military spokesman.

In recent months, fierce fighting has broken out between rival Shi'ite militias in the area, and two provincial governors have been assassinated, but US and Iraqi officials said they believed the Iraqi security forces were capable of taking over from British troops.

"The government welcomes the transfer of security responsibility in November," said Barham Salih, Iraq's deputy prime minister. "The drawdown is based on an assessment of the security environment in Basra."

Salih cautioned about the "political battles" in Basra and the existence of "armed gangs that are operating outside the law."

"I don't want to underestimate the challenge," he said. "But the assessment of the military command, both the British military command as well as the Iraqi military command, is that we are in a situation that [Iraqis] can be in the lead in terms of enforcing law, and for [Iraqis] to assume full security responsibility in Basra."

General David Petraeus, the top US military commander in Iraq, said the reduction of 1,000 British troops by the end of the year is "actually quite doable."

"There are innumerable challenges in the security situation in Basra . . . but there are really Iraqi solutions that are emerging to some of these," Petraeus said.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq, who met with Brown in Baghdad yesterday morning, issued a statement that Iraqi troops were ready to take security control in Basra "as soon as possible."

Brown flew into Baghdad for an unannounced "fact-finding" visit, his first trip to Iraq as prime minister. In addition to his meeting with Maliki, Brown spoke with Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, Petraeus and US Ambassador Ryan Crocker.

Iraqi officials also announced plans for $30 million for a Basra development fund and an additional $50 million to finance micro-credits to small businesses and help pay social security benefits, among other projects in the southern city.