World

Brits Confirm Mass Iraq Withdrawal By June

December 10, 2008 / 5:21 AM EST / CBS/AP

British troops will begin withdrawing from Iraq in March and will mostly be gone by June, the Ministry of Defense said Wednesday.

Britain has about 4,000 troops in southern Iraq. It expects to begin withdrawing them after regional elections planned for next month, the ministry said, confirming reports in British media.

The number of troops will fall to 300-400 by midyear, the reports said.

A U.S. brigade will replace the British force at Basra airport, ministry officials told reporters from British media in a briefing Tuesday. The ministry confirmed reports of the briefing to The Associated Press.

A new U.S.-Iraqi security pact calls for 150,000 American troops to be withdrawn from Iraq in two stages by the end of 2011. Iraq's Parliament has yet to ratify a new status of forces agreement with Britain to allow British troops to stay into next year.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said after a visit to Iraq in July that he "would expect a further fundamental change of mission in the first months of 2009, as we make the transition to a long term bilateral partnership with Iraq."

Brown has not announced a timetable.

In related developments:

The Marine Corps left troops in Iraq vulnerable to deadly roadside bombs by failing to answer an urgent request from battlefield commanders for blast-resistant vehicles, according to an internal Pentagon investigation obtained by The Associated Press.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday a freelance journalist imprisoned in northern Iraq for writing about homosexuality had been pardoned and released. Adel Hussein was convicted of violating a public decency law by writing an article about sodomy and health in April 2007 in the independent weekly Hawlati. He was sentenced on Nov. 24 to six months in prison. CPJ said Hussein was pardoned Sunday by the president of Iraq's self-ruled Kurdish region.

Reaching out to Iran and other neighbors, a top Iraqi official called Tuesday for the formation of an economic security union designed to share water, energy and other resources, and mediate disputes among its members. In outlining the proposal at the U.S.-backed Institute of Peace think tank, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said informal discussions had begun with Iran, Kuwait, Syria and Turkey. Saudi Arabia and Jordan could join the group as well, and the Gulf states also might wish to participate, he said.

The Times of London reported that the exact timing of the first British troop withdrawal would depend on the arrival of an American two-star military headquarters at the airport base northwest of Basra City.

Britain had about 40,000 troops in Iraq at the height of the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, and 177 members of the armed forces and civilian defense workers have died on duty.

Military commanders have warned that British troops are overstretched from commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan. Air Chief Marshal Jock Stirrup, the chief of the Defense Staff, said last month that a major withdrawal of Britain's 4,000 troops in Iraq in 2009 won't mean additional forces can immediately be sent to Afghanistan.