Britain reduces troop numbers in Iraq; Italy, Poland announce full withdrawals

By Michelle Tan
Army Times Staff writer

With recent announcements that thousands of troops from Italy, Poland and Great Britain could be pulling out of the Iraq war, a former Army general says the only allies left in Iraq are the civilian contractors.

“Our allies are leaving us in Iraq,” said retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, former commander of U.S. Southern Command.

“They’re essentially gone already. All the rest of our allies will be out of there by next summer. We’re on our own.”

The reduction of British troops will occur as control of two southern provinces is transferred to Iraqi forces, although British Defence Secretary Des Browne insisted Nov. 27 that “handover does not mean withdrawal.”

“Even when all the provinces are handed over, we will still be providing a force to mentor and back up the Iraqi army and police and to protect coalition supply routes,” he said. “But I can tell you that, by the end of next year, I expect numbers of British forces in Iraq to be significantly lower — by a matter of thousands.”

Britain has more than 7,000 troops in Iraq, primarily in the south. At the height of the conflict, there were about 46,000.

Browne said that how many troops and how long Britain would maintain a military presence in Iraq would be determined by officials in London and Baghdad.

The same day, Polish President Lech Kaczynski said his country, a U.S. ally in Iraq and Afghanistan, would pull its remaining 900 soldiers out of Iraq by the end of 2007.

And Italian Premier Romano Prodi said the last of Italy’s soldiers in Iraq — some 60 to 70 troops — would return home by Dec. 2, ending the Italian contingent’s presence in the south of the country after more than three years.

“They’re moving all of our logistics, running communications, [conducting] almost all advisory training with police, feeding our troops,” McCaffrey said of the allies. “Without them, the war effort would have faltered and ground to a halt.”

In a speech to the Royal Institute of International Affairs, a foreign policy think tank, Browne warned Iran that it faces increasing isolation if it does not use its influence in Iraq constructively, but he spared Syria from similar criticism.

“Its foreign minister — the first senior-ranking Syrian official to visit Iraq since Saddam Hussein’s fall — has re-established diplomatic ties and stated that Damascus is ready to engage in dialogue, and work for stability in Iraq and the region,” he said. “But, as ever, we need to see actions to match the words.”

The defense secretary was the second senior British official in recent days to talk of drawing down the number of British troops in Iraq. A week earlier, Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said Britain may be able to hand over security responsibility in the southern port city of Basra by spring. Britain also hopes to hand security control to the Iraqis in the province of Maysan, on the Iranian border, in January.

Jennifer Quinn, with The Associated Press, contributed to this story.