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Brown denies Basra pullout is a defeat

LONDON: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has rejected American criticism that Sunday’s withdrawal of British troops from Basra city is a defeat for the U.K. troops forced by Shia militant groups.

His remarks came as last of the British forces moved out of their main base in Basra Palace to the fringes of the city after handing over control to local Iraq authorities.

The withdrawal, which started on Sunday and involved 550 soldiers, was completed on Monday ahead of a planned handover of the entire Basra province to Iraqis over the next few months.

All the 5,500 British troops in Basra are now parked at a base near the airport with no active role in the day-to-day security of the region.

The withdrawal came despite American warnings that it amounted to handing over the city to militants.

American military officials and politicians accused Britain of “retreating” in the face of mounting militancy aimed at driving out British troops. A senior American official recently said the British mission in Basra had failed with the city descending into a “gangland.”

But, in his first public comment after the pullout, Mr. Brown firmly rejected such criticism and insisted that the withdrawal was “pre-planned.”

He told the BBC that British troops would continue to “discharge our duties to the Iraqi people.”

Downing Street said the withdrawal was part of the ongoing process of handing over control to Iraqi security forces. Foreign Secretary David Miliband argued that the decision showed that the situation on the ground had improved sufficiently for British forces to allow Iraqis to run their affairs.

“Our decisions in Basra reflect the situation on the ground, above all the growing capacity of the Iraqi security forces, and are signed off by the coalition and the Iraqi government,” he said.

The Ministry of Defence in a statement said that handing over Basra Palace to the Iraqi authorities had “long been our intention”.

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