(UK) Troop reduction in Iraq delayed after pressure from US

[struggle4progress]

By Raymond Whitaker and Martin Hodgson
Published: 18 February 2007

Yielding to American pressure, Tony Blair will announce this week that a reduction of British troop levels in Iraq is to be delayed.

Military chiefs have been pushing for an early "drawdown" of forces in Iraq, amid complaints that the armed forces are becoming overstretched by increasing commitments, especially in Afghanistan. Plans had been drawn up to cut the number of bases in south-eastern Iraq and to reduce the British contingent by about 3,000 by the end of the year, from the present level of around 7,100.

But a senior defence source said the Prime Minister would announce a slowdown in the planning: the reduction of about 1,000 troops planned for April will be postponed to August.

Last month the Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett, said that Britain would be in a position to hand over security in Basra to the Iraqis "at some point this spring". It is clear that this decision has now been put off until the autumn at the earliest ...

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2281389.ece