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U.K. troops to leave Iraq in May: Brown

LONDON: Nearly six years of often bloody and controversial British occupation of Iraq will end next spring, it was announced on Wednesday following talks between British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his Iraqi counterpart Nuri al-Maliki in Baghdad.

British troops will start withdrawing from their base in Basra in May, with last of the forces expected to return home by July, though a few hundred personnel may stay back to help with the training of Iraqi security forces.

There are a little over 4,000 British troops in Iraq, a majority confined to an air base outside central Basra since September 2007 after suffering humiliation in clashes with Shia militants opposed to their occupation.

Announcing the decision at a press conference, Mr. Brown said: “We have agreed today that the mission will end no later than 31 May next year. Our troops will be coming home within the next two months [after that].”

He praised the contribution of British forces and said they would be leaving “Iraq a better place” — a claim questioned by domestic observers.

“I am proud of the contribution British forces have made. They are the pride of Britain and the best in the world,” he said.Mr. Brown and Mr. Maliki were keen to emphasise that this did not mean an end to the U.K.-Iraqi “partnership,” which they said would “continue to take on new dimensions and will be strengthened through cooperation.” The announcement sparked renewed calls for an independent inquiry into the Iraq invasion. Shadow Defence Secretary Liam Fox said: “Now we have a timetable for troops coming out we can have a timetable for the inquiry that so many people want. There is no reason for the government to refuse that.”

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said until now, the government had claimed it would be wrong to hold an inquiry while British troops were still in Iraq, but it could no longer “hide behind” that argument.Meanwhile, media reports claimed British troops in Basra were expected to be replaced by “several thousand” U.S. troops as part of the new Status of Forces Agreement between the U.S. and Iraq.

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