UK troops could start leaving Iraq next year: Blair

By Katherine Baldwin

BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Tony Blair,
on a lightning trip to Iraq, said on Thursday that the
situation was entirely different from a year ago and signaled
Britain could start scaling down its troop presence in six
months.

Blair, on his fourth trip to Iraq since the 2003 U.S-led
invasion, said good progress was being made in training Iraqi
security and police forces to protect the country.

The ability of Iraqis to manage the country’s security is
the key condition for the 8,000 British troops, most of them
stationed in the southeast near Basra, to return home.

Asked if six months was a viable time for a withdrawal to
begin, Blair said: “If everything goes to plan. It is our
strategy, we want to draw down our own forces.”

“This is a completely different situation from the
situation a year ago,” Blair told reporters at Shaiba logistics
base near Basra, home to half the UK contingent in Iraq.

But he said they could only leave once Iraqis were able to
keep the peace. “You don’t set an arbitrary timetable. You
assess when the job is done,” he said.

Blair met U.S. and British military chiefs to discuss the
security situation after last week’s Iraqi election.

General George Casey, U.S. military commander in Iraq, told
him that by summer 2006, Iraqis will be in charge of 75 percent
of security in some areas.

Blair told the troops they were helping to secure Iraq, the
region and the wider world against terrorism.

“The only way to do that is to provide security so the
Iraqi forces can build up, and then we can eventually draw down
on our own capability.”

After flying low over southern oilfields in a Merlin
helicopter, from Basra airport to the army base, Blair mingled
with troops and was serenaded by a group of Fijian soldiers in
what commanders said was an impromptu performance.

He also broke through the ranks of British staff to greet
Iraqi mechanics and engineers before addressing the troops from
the top of a mobile tank carrier.

“If we manage to defeat terrorism here, we’ll have dealt it
a huge body blow worldwide,” he said.

TIGHT SECURITY

Tight security surrounded Blair’s visit including a news
blackout until he touched down from Kuwait in a Hercules
transport aircraft, for fear of attacks by insurgents.

British officials will not publicly discuss a timetable for
troop withdrawal, but have linked it to Iraqi forces’ ability
to confront the insurgency that sprang up after the invasion.

Britain has said it would be prepared to lead a NATO
expansion into southern Afghanistan next year, expanding its
force there from 9,000 to 15,000 troops, though defense experts
say British army resources are already stretched thin.

A partial withdrawal from Iraq could also ease the pressure
on Blair over the U.S.-led war. Taking part in the invasion was
the most contentious and politically damaging foreign policy
decision of his eight-year premiership.

Compared with Baghdad, where U.S. troops are in command,
southeast Iraq has been largely stable, but violence has
increased in past months and British officials say local police
and security services are being infiltrated by insurgents.