Iraq: British Troops More Mobile

**troung** · 24 Aug 06,, 22:45

Iraq: British Troops More Mobile
August 24, 2006 13 59 GMT

Six hundred British troops in Iraq are abandoning their base in the southern province of Maysan in favor of operating out of Landrovers and receiving supplies via air drops, a British military spokesman said Aug. 24. The soldiers, from the Queen's Royal Hussars, will head to Iraq's southern marshland border areas to interdict gun smugglers from Iran.
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British troops quit Iraq base, adopt WWII tactics
24 Aug 2006 12:33:46 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Ross Colvin
BAGHDAD, Aug 24 (Reuters) - British troops abandoned their base in Iraq's southern Maysan province on Thursday, which has been under almost nightly attack, and prepared to head deep into the marshlands along the Iranian border to hunt gun smugglers.
Soldiers of the Queen's Royal Hussars are to adopt tactics first pioneered by the famed Long Range Desert Group, a roving special forces unit that fought Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's German Afrika Korps in North Africa during World War Two.
The 600 combat troops are giving up their Challenger tanks and Warrior armoured fighting vehicles in favour of stripped-down Landrovers armed with machineguns. The units will remain constantly on the move and be resupplied by air drops.
"We are repositioning our forces to focus on border areas and deal with reports of smuggling of weapons and improvised explosive devices from across the border," British military spokesman Major Charlie Burbridge told Reuters.
"We are going to do what the Long Range Desert Group did in North Africa. We will live in the desert. We will be mobile and able to strike when we want. We will have surprise on our side," he said.
The Hussars were until Thursday stationed at Camp Abu Naji near Amara, the capital of Maysan province which also has a large presence of Mehdi Army militia fighters loyal to radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
The base has been a target for frequent mortar and rocket barrages since being set up in 2003, although the attacks have caused few injuries, Burbridge said.
While dismissing suggestions the British had been forced out of Amara, he acknowledged the attacks had been one reason for the decision to withdraw, the second being that a static base did not fit with the new operation.
"Abu Naji was a bulls-eye in the middle of a dartboard. The attacks were a nuisance and were a contributing factor in our planning," to quit the base, he said.
"We understand the militias in Maysan province are using this as an example that we have been pushed out of Abu Naji, but that is not true. It was very rare for us to take casualties."
DISAPPEAR & DISRUPT
Burbridge said the new-look battle group would consist of 600 fighting troops and "would disappear into the marshlands and desert" to disrupt smuggling from Iran. A further 600 members of the unit will back them up from Basra.
"The Americans are concerned with the inflow of weapons across the border. We are not saying it is state-controlled but there is a large tribal area that straddles the border and weapons are a very lucrative trade at the moment," he said.
U.S. and British officials have accused Iran of arming Shi'ite militias blamed for much of the sectarian violence now ravaging Iraq, as well as for attacks on foreign troops.
He said Iraqi security forces would now be responsible for day-to-day security in Maysan but stressed that the British had not yet handed over complete control to them.
Within hours of the British withdrawal from Abu Naji, local residents said Iraqi soldiers had fired warning shots to disperse looters at the base. Burbridge said the British had left little equipment behind.
When the British handed over their base in nearby Muthanna province to Iraqi security forces in July it was quickly looted by local tribesmen, a senior Iraqi army official said.
Residents also saw air conditioners, apparently from the base on sale, in a market in the provincial capital, Samawa.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L24546480.htm

**Ray** · 07 Sep 06,, 11:39

Britain forced to send more troops to Iraq

· Beckett admits very slow progress on security
· President claims all UK troops could leave in 2007

Richard Norton-Taylor, Ewen MacAskill and Steven Morris
Wednesday September 6, 2006

Britain is to reinforce its military presence in Iraq in a move that reflects increasing concern about the threat to its troops and the inability of local forces to take over responsibility for the country's security.

The decision was announced by the Ministry of Defence as the foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, on her first visit to Iraq, warned that it was making "very slow" progress on security. Separately, a leading international thinktank warned that the conflict in Iraq was producing highly trained and motivated jihadists ready to commit terrorist acts in Europe and elsewhere.

The 360 extra British troops will be deployed in southern Iraq to reinforce the 19 Light Brigade which takes over from the 20 Armoured Brigade, at present based in Basra, later this year, the MoD said. They will include soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, based in Cyprus, Royal Engineers, Royal Marines and Military Police.

The MoD said the engineers would help counter the threat from improvised explosive devices, which have killed 19 British soldiers patrolling in "snatch" Land Rovers over the last 16 months. A Royal Marine boat troop will be deployed to step up security on the Shatt al-Arab waterway, which borders Iran. The extra military police will train local Iraqi forces.

At a joint Baghdad press conference, Mrs Beckett distanced herself from comments by the Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, who said all 7,200 British troops in Iraq could be gone by the end of 2007, by which time Iraqi security forces would have taken over their responsibilities.

She said the president was only offering a personal opinion and "not setting a deadline". Withdrawal would depend on the capability of Iraqi forces to take over from British forces.

She said: "Coalition forces can't go now because that would create a security vacuum." She added that Iraq was making "very slow" progress on security, describing it as "two steps forward, two steps sideways".

A Foreign Office official said one of the biggest concerns was the growing involvement of Iran, which was pouring billions of pounds into Iraq, extending its influence there. Tehran enjoys a close relationship with some of the leading parties in the Shia-led Iraqi government coalition.

British officials also say Iranian elements are backing Shia militia which have infiltrated Iraqi security forces in the south of the country and are supplying equipment for increasingly sophisticated improvised roadside bombs.

In London, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, warned of the threat posed by jihadists experienced in fighting foreign troops in Iraq.

"The fear is that some jihadists will survive US-led counter-insurgency efforts and relocate to Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Europe, and possibly the United States, better trained and motivated to perpetrate and direct terrorist operations," it warned in its latest annual strategic survey.

It added: "Events in Iraq [have] also prompted jihadists to refine and propagate urban warfare techniques, and they may choose to apply them robustly to cities elsewhere." The institute concluded: "In taking stock of counter-terrorism five years on from September 11, a grim picture emerges."

One of two British soldiers killed near Basra on Monday when a roadside bomb hit his Land Rover was named yesterday as Gunner Stephen Wright, 20, of the Royal Artillery. His father, Stephen Leigh, from Leyland, Lancs, said: "I don't want to get into why the army are there or whether they should be ... but it's hard that he's a victim of this conflict".

Meanwhile, a British soldier killed on Monday by a suicide bomber in the Afghan capital, Kabul, was named as Private Craig O'Donnell, 24, of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. His parents said he was looking forward to setting up home with his girlfriend Jessica and to the birth of their first child at Christmas.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1865688,00.html

The way things are going, all will have to beef up their strengths.