The UK military spokesman in southern Iraq has been speaking about the mood of optimism he believes is growing in Basra following operations carried out by the Iraqi Security Forces in the city, with help from UK and other coalition troops, in recent days.The Iraqi Army have been involved in an effort to wrestle control from armed militias in the city since the end of March. And according to Major Tom Holloway from the Headquarters Multi-National Division South East, based at the Contingency Operating Base near Basra Airport, signs of progress are beginning to become visible.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning, Wednesday 23 April 2008, Maj Holloway gave an assessment of what he believes to be the current situation:
"It's looking like much of the city is under the control of the government of Iraq. Obviously it's been a deliberate operation for the last four weeks, cordoning and searching large areas of town, and it's not just kinetic operations against criminal militias but the Iraqi government has been involved in humanitarian aid and low level improvements in the city.
"And if I can just say a couple of words on the mood in town. There is a real sense of optimism amongst the people in the city, a confidence in the ability of the ISF (Iraqi Security Forces) that they've seen demonstrated on the streets of their city over the course of the last month now that rule of the law is imposed."
When asked to shed some light on media reports pointing at incompetence in elements of the Iraqi Army and the suggested thousand or so desertions by Iraqi soldiers which have also been reported, Maj Holloway explained the background to what had happened:
"IÂ’m not quite sure it's as many as a thousand but let's just take that as a ball park figure. I think what we've got to realise is that it was 14 Division and members of the police who were reported to have those sort of levels of desertion. Now, they're recruited from this area and there's a difficulty when people are asked to conduct operations in towns and areas that they know, and that's been recognised since by the Iraqi government. They are conducting military discipline, courts martial etc, against those deserters. So it will go through due process.
"It didn't fall apart. There are 18 battalions of Iraqi army alone in the city, there's over two divisions worth of troops, so for a thousand police and army to desert is not a significant dent in the numbers and it did not deflate the efforts of the government of Iraq in imposing security on Basra."
"There is a real sense of optimism amongst the people in the city, a confidence in the ability of the ISF (Iraqi Security Forces) that they've seen demonstrated on the streets of their city over the course of the last month now that rule of the law is imposed."
Maj Holloway was also asked about reports suggesting the Iraqi Army were under-equipped and that Iraqi troops had forced coalition troops to give them food and water at gunpoint:
"I'm not familiar with reports of them coming at us at gunpoint," said Maj Holloway. "We provided limited assistance in the very early days. This operation was noted by the government of Iraq's ability to get significant numbers of troops down here at very short notice, and that in itself is a major achievement; that we had to provide some assistance with some logistic support was part of our provision of support under the agreements with the government of Iraq and so weÂ’re just fulfilling our part of the deal."
The issue of why US troops had been sent down to Basra to support Operation Charge of the Knights was also raised during the interview, specifically whether the British should be embarrassed that the Americans sent so many combat troops to assist:
"No we shouldn't, because we work as part of an American-led coalition, and it's right that when the coalition's focus comes to Basra and brings with it resources, that we do see an increase in their numbers and levels of equipment down here.
"And if I can just say, yes there are American troops in the city and they'e doing, as we are, providing military transition teams, or 'MITTs' as they are called by us, with Iraqi units, but those American 'MITTs' were already embedded with Iraqi army units elsewhere in the country, and they came here with those Iraqi units. So we should not be embarrassed that the Americans have come down, we work within their organisation."