UK military brass rejects al-Sadrs retreat claim in Basra

British military commanders have rejected radical Iraqi Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadrs claims that UK troops are retreating from Iraq.

London, Aug.21 : British military commanders have rejected radical Iraqi Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr's claims that UK troops are retreating from Iraq.

Accusing al-Sadr of projecting a false impression through his interview with The Independent, Major Mike Shearer said the former wanted to claim as victory what was essentially a planned withdrawal.

According to The Independent, British troops have so far withdrawn from three of the four provinces of Iraq, and in Basra, Iraq's second largest city, they have pulled out of two of the three bases that they have used since 2003.

Sadr's comments came during two separate meetings with The Independent at his headquarters in Kufa, 100 miles south of Baghdad.

Senior British military commanders, however, have reportedly told Prime Minister Gordon Brown that there is nothing more to be achieved in southern Iraq and that troops should be redeployed to Afghanistan.

At the beginning of the year, Britain had just over 7,000 troops in two provinces of southeastern Iraq. Current force strength is down to 5,500, confined to two main bases, Basra airport and the Basra Palace, which is under siege.

Another reduction to 5,000 is expected this summer. Any additional cuts would be part of a complete withdrawal.

So far, 41 servicemen and women have died this year, compared to 29 in the whole of 2006. ast month, Gordon Brown said after a meeting George Bush at Camp David that the decision to hand over security in Basra province - the last of the four held by the British - "will be made on the military advice of our commanders on the ground".

Two generals told The Independent last Sunday that the military advice given to the Prime Minister was, "We've done what we can in the south [of Iraq]". Commanders want to hand over Basra Palace - where 500 British troops are subjected to up to 60 rocket and mortar strikes a day, and re-supply convoys have been described as "nightly suicide missions" - by the end of August.

The Government has already announced the withdrawal of 500 soldiers. The Army is drawing up plans to "reposture" the 5,000 that will be left at Basra airport, and aims to bring the bulk of them home in the next few months.

American criticism of Britain's desire to pull back in southern Iraq has recently become public, with a US intelligence official telling The Washington Post this month that "the British have basically been defeated in the south".

A senior British commander countered, "That's to miss the point. It was never that kind of battle, in which we set out to defeat an enemy."

There are fears that the bloody power struggle in Basra will escalate sharply if and when British troops depart.

The September 15 report on the progress of the security "surge" by the US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and the American ambassador to Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, will be crucial to British as well as US military plans.

General Petraeus is expected to report mixed results, and to plead for more time for the surge to work. But the White House, under pressure from Republicans facing disaster in the 2008 elections, is likely to announce at least some troop reductions.

ANI