US, Britain Plan Iraq Pullout for As Early As Next March: Newspaper

US, Britain plan Iraq pullout for as early as next March: newspaper

LONDON, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) — The United States and Britain are planning to withdraw their military forces from Iraq as early as March 2006, a British newspaper reported Tuesday.

British and US officials regard this week’s election in Iraq as the “green light” to begin withdrawing some of their combined force as early as March, The Times said.

“One of the first things we will talk about (with the new Iraqi government) is the phased transfer of security, particularly in cities and provinces,” the newspaper quoted a senior Western diplomat in Baghdad as saying. “It will happen progressively over the next year.”

The United States has more than 160,000 troops in central and northern Iraq, and Britain has around 8,000 in four southern provinces.

Contingency plans are already in place for the small British contingents in the two provinces of Dhiqar and Muthanna to go as early as the next spring, the Times said. The third to go will be those in the far more restive province of Misan.

Though the United States has increased its troop levels for the elections on Thursday, it is planning to pull out 30,000 troops by the new year and reduce their presence to below 100,000 in the coming months, according to the report.

The US Ambassador to Baghdad Zalman Khalilzad said the US military role would increasingly become one of supporting frontline Iraqi forces until it was merely “a reserve.”

“Our goal will be to leave Iraq as soon as possible but without increasing insecurity,” he said.

Meanwhile, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told The Times that a hasty exit could plunge the country into a new bout of violence.

“Those who advocate an early withdrawal do not know what is at stake,” he said. “There would be regional interventions by neighbouring countries and others. The fate of this country and the whole region could be endangered.”