Britain to redeploy troops
LONDON – In a step fraught with risks for Prime Minister Tony Blair, Britain agreed Thursday to send 850 of its soldiers from relatively peaceful southern Iraq to a volatile area near Baghdad, freeing U.S. troops to step up attacks on insurgent strongholds west of the capital.
The move is part of a coalition effort to bring order to Iraq before elections in January. But British lawmakers, many of whom opposed the war, are angry, fearing a major increase in British casualties. And some are grumbling that Britain is “bailing out” President Bush in his bid for re-election.
The Bush administration welcomed the redeployment, with White House spokesman Scott McClellan saying, “We appreciate the contribution,” and State Department spokesman Richard Boucher praising Britain’s key role in the U.S.-led coalition.
Meeting a request from U.S. commanders, Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said an armored battle group from the 1st Battalion Black Watch would move from its base around the southern port city of Basra into a U.S.-controlled sector close to the capital. Sunni insurgents have been carrying out daily attacks on U.S. troops and Iraqis in the area.
Hoon declined to give further details of the “location, duration or specifics of the mission,” citing security reasons, and did not say when the move will take place. Britain’s chief of defense staff, Gen. Sir Michael Walker, later said the deployment would last a maximum of 30 days.
The American military wants the British to assume security responsibility in areas close to Baghdad, so U.S. Marines and soldiers can be shifted to insurgency strongholds west of the capital, including Fallujah.
U.S. and Iraqi officials want to restore government control to Fallujah, Ramadi and other Sunni Muslim cities in that area and have warned they will use force if negotiations with community leaders there fail.
The redeployment is politically sensitive for Blair, whose popularity has plummeted because of his support for the Iraq war.
Britain’s 8,500 troops are based around Basra, and sending British soldiers into the more dangerous U.S.-controlled sector carries a risk of higher casualties. Sixty-eight British soldiers have died in Iraq since the war began last year, the Defense Ministry said.