The Hindu : International : U.S. request will entangle U.K. more deeply in Iraq

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 18, 2004

International

International

U.S. request will entangle U.K. more deeply in Iraq

By Peter Beaumont and Martin Bright

LONDON, OCT. 17. British troops are poised to serve in two violent flash-points south of Baghdad that have seen regular terrorist attacks as well as heavy street fighting, in a move certain to entangle Britain more deeply in Iraq's growing violence.

Senior U.S. military officers in Baghdad have asked for a battalion of British soldiers — around 650 men, almost certainly from the Black Watch regiment — to be moved to the holy city of Najaf, where just weeks ago U.S. troops were engaged in a month of street-fighting with Shia radicals.

While the majority of the soldiers would move into the U.S. base just outside the city, more controversial is a request to deploy a company of British soldiers to Hilla, north of Najaf, and on the road to the rebel-controlled towns to the south of Baghdad.

Battle plan

The movement of the Black Watch from Basra is intended to free up U.S. troops to join the long-awaited battle to retake Fallujah, and clear it of terrorists loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The proposed redeployment would almost certainly put the British troops under U.S. command. Senior Opposition party figures last night demanded assurances that a British chain of command be retained.

The disclosure comes as Nicholas Soames, the Tory (Conservative) shadow defence secretary, warned the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, yesterday not to put troops in danger merely as a `political gesture' to the U.S. administration.

His calls were echoed by former senior servicemen and by former Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, who said British troops could find themselves associated with the U.S.'s more aggressive tactics. "For a year, Britain has been trying in vain to persuade U.S. forces to show the same restraint as our troops, who have won a lot of local goodwill as a result," Mr. Cook said yesterday.

"The real risk of sending a British battalion into the U.S. sector is that our troops could become associated in Iraqi minds with U.S. methods."

Pressure on Blair

Further pressure on Mr. Blair over the conduct of the war comes in an interview with Kofi Annan, the U.N. Secretary-General, for ITV's Jonathan Dimbleby Programme. Mr. Annan says he does not believe the removal of Saddam Hussein has made the world a safer place.

"I cannot say the world is safer," said Mr. Annan, "when you consider the violence around us, when you look around and see the attacks around the world. And you see what is going on in Iraq. I think it has become more difficult in that you are getting a concentration of terrorists in Iraq, almost like a magnet drawing them there, and linking them to other groups outside Iraq."

The threatened U.S. move against Fallujah, which has followed days of bombing raids on rebel positions inside the city, stems from a determination in both Washington and London either to force the negotiated surrender of the militants there — and the handover of Zarqawi and his foreign fighters — or defeat them on the ground.

Aggressive policy

It is part of an aggressive new policy designed to defeat the Sunni uprising ahead of next January's planned elections and imposition of Government control in Fallujah, Ramadi and Baquba by Iraq's own police and security forces by December at the latest. —

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International

News Update

Stories in this Section

Nine Iraqi policemen killed in ambush

U.S. request will entangle U.K. more deeply in Iraq

British official quits

Karzai widens lead

Russia opens base in Tajikistan

Club keeps Blair waiting

Israel launches offensive in Rafah

Sri Lankan peace talks `likely in November'

Satellite crashes into apartment

Name conspirators: Hasina

Former BBC chief's "killing" turn of phrase

A friendship struck at first sight

Gen. Giap for closer ties