Iraq/UK

British troops to leave says Brown on visit to Baghdad and Basra

Article published on the 2008-12-17 Latest update 2008-12-17 15:48 TU

Brown arrives in Baghdad
(Photo: Reuters)

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday announced that his country's troops will leave Iraq early next year, in line with the Iraqi parliament's call on all foreign troops, apart from those of the US, to pull out by the end of July. During Brown's surprise visit to Baghdad and Basra, a car bomb killed at least eight people and injured 43 in the country.

"By the end of May, or earlier, the mission will be completed," Brown said at a joint press conference with Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

"The role played by the UK combat forces is drawing to a close," said a joint statement by Brown and Maliki. "These forces will have completed their tasks in the first half of 2009 and will then leave Iraq."

The "partnership" between the two countries will enter "a new era", the statement added, noting Britain's influence within the EU and the UN Security Council.

Media reports say that the pullout will begin in March, on condition that provincial elections in January pass peacefully.

Britain has 4,100 troops in Iraq, based at the airport outside the southern port city of Basra. They peaked at 46,000 during the invasion of 2003. A total of 178 British troops have died in Iraq since then.

"We're in a very good position practically to withdraw, having just over four thousand troops there, at an airfield," says James Denselow, a specialist in Iraqi geopolitics at King's College London.

Brown also visited Basra, where he will receive a report on progress on plans to transfer the airport to civilian use, aid economic development and provide support for the January election.

"As the second biggest partner the Americans have been very reluntant to have us leave before they think conditions are right," Denselow told RFI.

While Brown was in Baghdad, a car parked outside a traffic police post exploded, killing at least eight people according to the Defence Ministry.

And Muntazar al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at US President George Bush, appeared before a judge on Wednesday.

Al-Zaidi was earlier taken to hospital after being badly beaten by security guards, leading to a broken arm and ribs, according to his brother Durgham, who said that the judge told him that he is "co-operating well".

Demonstrations in support of al-Zaidi, who could faces seven years in jail for "offending the head of a foreign state", have taken place in Iraq and elsewhere in the Arab world.

Bush's representatives say that he "harbours no hard feelings" over the incident.