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Desert Rats to Iraq Next Year
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain has had to abandon plans for a sharp reduction in its troop numbers in Iraq next year because of fears the country is sliding toward civil war, the Sunday Telegraph newspaper said. Britain's Ministry of Defense (MoD) disputed the report, saying it had never set a timetable for withdrawing its 8,500 troops and that any reduction in troop numbers would depend on conditions in Iraq.But it confirmed that soldiers from the 7th Armored Brigade, better known as the Desert Rats, would be redeployed to Iraq before the end of the year, suggesting thousands of British troops will remain in the country well into 2006. "The formal announcement of that redeployment will be made during the autumn and they would be scheduled to go out around the end of November," a MoD spokesman said. Britain, the main ally of the United States in Iraq, has frequently said its soldiers will stay there "until the job is done" and until the Iraqi government asks them to leave. It said 6,000 Desert Rats would go to Iraq in what it described as "an unexpected redeployment." The MoD described the figure as speculative and said the redeployment was part of a rotation of troops and did not mean Britain was increasing its presence in Iraq. Posted by: Steve White 2005-09-18 |
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