LONDON: Political pressure from the United States delayed the British withdrawal from the southern Iraqi city of Basra for five months, Britain's Army commander there said in an interview published yesterday.
Britain could have left Basra Palace as early as April, but the United States insisted British forces stay on, The Daily Telegraph quoted Brigadier General James Bashall as saying.
"In April we could have come out and done the transition completely and it would have been the right thing to do, but politics prevented that," Bashall was quoted as saying. "The Americans asked us to stay for longer."
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's spokesman denied the report. "The Telegraph story is not correct. The decision to hand over Basra Palace to the Iraqi Security Forces earlier this month was made because the Iraqi Security Forces were ready to take over," spokesman Michael Ellam said.
Last week Britain withdrew its troops from Basra Palace, its last base inside the city, moving all its forces to an airport camp on the city's outskirts.
The decision drew scorn from American critics who accused the British of conceding defeat in the south just as the US "surge" strategy is making itself felt elsewhere.
Stephen Biddle, a military adviser who counseled US General David Petraeus in 2006, said Britain's Basra withdrawal would come to be seen as a "major blunder in terms of military history." Other US officials hinted that the move could force Americans to divert some soldiers to the south if the Iraqis can't control the Basra area.
Senior British military figures hit back, with retired General Sir Mike Jackson, who led the British army during the Iraq invasion, calling US postwar policy in the country "intellectually bankrupt." Jackson was backed by a chorus of opposition politicians and a second retired general, Major General Tim Cross.
Source: China Daily/agencies
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