UK general: UK troops to stay in Iraq through 2007
Source: Reuters
(Adds details, comments throughout) By Kristin Roberts WASHINGTON, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Britain's senior representative in Iraq on Friday said British forces will remain in Iraq through 2007 and perhaps into 2008 if the Baghdad government asks for continued help. "Do I see ourselves being here throughout 2007? Yes," said Army Lt. Gen. Graeme Lamb, deputy commander of Multi-National Force-Iraq. "Do I see that commitment being carried on to 2008? That will be for discussion among this sovereign government, my government, our part in the coalition and the like," he told reporters at the Pentagon in a teleconference from Iraq. "But if we're asked to stay here then I don't see any reason, although it's a political one, that we would not continue to remain committed to the Iraqis." Britain has about 6,200 troops in southern Iraq, mostly in Basra. That is slightly below the normal level of nearly 7,300, he said. British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Jan. 10 said British operations aimed at preparing to hand over security in Basra to Iraqi authorities could be completed in the next few weeks. The Daily Telegraph also has reported that Britain planned to cut troop levels in Iraq by almost 3,000 by the end of May. Lamb, however, said Shi'ite militias were "making inroads" in Basra in southern Iraq, where the bulk of the British force operates. Still, he dismissed suggestions that British troops had been defeated in Basra. "I don't think we're defeated in any sense," he said. More than three years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, U.S., British and Iraqi forces have been unable to establish control in most of the country. The United States has begun to send an additional 21,500 U.S. troops to Iraq, mostly to establish security in Baghdad, a city plagued by daily killings and kidnappings. U.S. troop levels stand at 134,000. The violence is not contained in Baghdad, however. Fighting continues in Anbar and Basra as well. Still, Lamb called for a long view of the war in Iraq, citing Britain's decades-long conflict in Northern Ireland and both America's and Britain's efforts to draft constitutions. "Things are difficult. This is hard pounding, I don't doubt that in any sense," he said. "But I do see every reason for optimism." "It took you 11 years to write your constitution and we're still trying to write ours," he said.
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