U.K. To Start Iraq Withdrawal

Britain, America's most important ally in Iraq, will withdraw close to half its troops by the end of the year if local troops are able to secure the southern part of the country, Prime Minister Tony Blair announced Wednesday.

Blair, in a televised address from the floor of the parliament, said the security situation in Basra, the southern city where most British troops are based, is "very different from Baghdad", and that 1,600 troops based there could come home in the "coming months".

More than a quarter of the 7,100 troops now in Basra and southern Iraq — 2,100 — could be home by the end of the summer, reports CBS News correspondent Richard Roth.

The prime minister did not say when the remaining British troops might return from service in Iraq, but Roth reports government sources say they hope all the troops will have left by the end of next year.

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Jon Alterman, the director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies Middle East Program, discusses the possible consequences of the British withdrawal from Iraq.

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Blair held Basra up as an example of how the handover of security duties to Iraqi forces should be carried out, touting it as a success to emulated in Baghdad.

He said there is little violence between Sunnis and Shiites in the Basra area now, and that most attacks are directed at British forces, offering what he deemed as further evidence that the situation would improve if the soldiers came home.

He told lawmakers that "increasingly our role will be support and training, and our numbers will be able to reduce accordingly."

Blair said Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had agreed to the plan.

But the south of Iraq has turned into a battleground for rival Shiite militias, reports CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan, despite the presence of British troops.

Well-armed militiamen, like fighters from the powerful Mehdi army, compete for control of the oil-rich land. It is these militias — and no longer British troops — that are the law in the area.

Dependent on Iraqi capability, Britain would draw down further, "possibly to below 5,000," once a base at Basra Palace is transferred to Iraqi control in late summer, Blair said.

"What all of this means is not that Basra is how we want it to be, but it does mean that the next chapter in Basra's history can be written by Iraqis," Blair said.

The announcement comes as President Bush implements an increase of 21,000 more troops for Iraq, but while some of the other coalition partners are pulling out.

Almost as if taking a cue from Britain, Denmark's prime minister said
Wednesday that his country will withdraw its 460-member contingent
from southern Iraq by August and transfer security responsibilities
to Iraqi forces.

Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the decision had been made in conjunction with the Iraqi government and Britain, under whose command the Danish forces are serving near Basra.

Also Wednesday, a Lithuanian government spokeswoman said her country was "seriously considering" withdrawing its 53 troops from Iraq.

Defense Ministry spokeswoman Ruta Apeitkyte told The Associated Press that the Baltic country was considering not replacing the contingent when its mission ends in August.

The Italians and Slovaks have already left, and the South Koreans want to start withdrawing their force too.

The Bush administration said Wednesday that Britain's decision is a positive sign that fits with the overall strategy for stabilizing the country.
Statements out of the White House, as well as from Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice — both traveling overseas — attempted to put a good face on the British troop reduction.

"The British have done what is really the plan for the country as a whole, which is to transfer security responsibility to the Iraqis as the situation permits," Rice said at a press conference in Berlin, where she was in meetings on the Mideast peace process. "The coalition remains intact and, in fact, the British still have thousands of troops deployed in Iraq."

Cheney called it good news.

"I look at it and see it is actually an affirmation that there are parts of Iraq where things are going pretty well," Cheney told ABC News while in Tokyo.

Britain has long been the most important coalition member in Iraq after the United States. But Blair knows the British public and politicians from his own Labour Party want the troops out as quickly as possible, and don't want to see Britain stick with the United States in Iraq for the long haul.

Johndroe said that "President Bush sees this as a sign of success and what is possible for us once we help the Iraqis deal with the sectarian violence in Baghdad ... It's the model we want to emulate, to turn over more responsibilities to Iraqis and bring our troops home."

At a news conference in Brussels on Jan. 15, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he was not bothered that Britain was "planning a drawdown at some point this year in their forces in the south."

He said Basra's security situation was much different than Baghdad's.

Currently, according to the Brookings Institution, besides Britain, the major partners in the coalition include South Korea (2,300 troops), Poland (900), Georgia (800), Romania (600) and Denmark (460).

The British decision to reduce its troop numbers in Iraq will not cause Australia to follow suit, Prime Minister John Howard said Wednesday.

Australia has 550 troops in two southern Iraqi provinces helping to train domestic security forces. It has more troops in other parts of Iraq, including forces guarding Australian diplomats in Baghdad. In total, Australia has 1,400 troops committed to the war, in Iraq and neighboring countries.

Some say there is little point in boosting forces in the largely Shiite south of Iraq, where most non-U.S. coalition troops are concentrated. Yet as more countries draw down or pull out, it could create a security vacuum if radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr stirs up trouble there.

Blair, who has said he will step down as prime minister by September after a decade in power, has seen his foreign-policy record overshadowed by his role as Bush's leading ally in the unpopular war.

Last month, Blair said he would report to lawmakers on his future strategy in Iraq following the completion of Operation Sinbad, a joint British and Iraqi mission targeting police corruption and militia influence in Basra. The operation was completed Sunday, and Blair's spokesman called it a success.

Treasury chief Gordon Brown, who is likely to succeed Blair, has said he hoped several thousand British soldiers would be withdrawn by December.

In November, Defense Secretary Des Browne said he believed the number of British troops based in Iraq would be "significantly lower by a matter of thousands" by the end of 2007.