LONDON, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- British troops are
pulling out of a base in the southern Iraq, the Sky News reported on Sunday.
Some 500 of British 5,500 troops in Iraq, which were
stationed at Basra Palace built for Saddam Hussein, are moving back to Basra
airport in the city's outskirts, said the report.
A convoy of British armoured vehicles pulling out from Basra Palace. Prime Minister Gordon Brown defended the withdrawal of troops from Basra city, but
the move will do little to ease mounting signs of tension between London and
Washington.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>
"I can confirm that an operation is ongoing, but we
will not give any further details," a military spokesman in Basra Major Mike
Shearer was quoted by the Sky News as saying.
According to the report, the operation to move the
troops is expected to be finished around midnight British time.
Basra is the last of five provinces in British sphere
of operations in southern Iraq yet to move to local Iraqi control. And Prime
Minister Gordon Brown had said that Basra would move to "overwatch" as soon as
conditions on the ground permitted the move.
British withdrawal from Basra Palace, on the banks of
the Shatt-al-Arab waterway, was part of the process of handing over to Iraqi
security forces. And it will be seen as symbolic as pressure mounts on Brown to
announce a timetable for Britain's forces to pull out of Iraq altogether.
Iraqi soldiers stand guard outside the entrance to Basra Palace. US President George W. Bush made a surprise visit to Iraq, on the same day that
British troops withdrew from their last base in the southern Iraqi city of
Basra.(Xinhua/AFP Photo) Photo
Gallery>>>
According
to the report by The Sunday Times, Britain was preparing to hand over control of
Basra province to the Iraqi army as early as next month, enabling most of the
5,500 British soldiers to leave Iraq.
Britain, U.S. staunchest ally in the 2003 invasion of
Iraq, stations the second largest number of troops, following the United States,
in the battered country.
Currently, Britain has some 5,500 troops in southern Iraq. And Since 2003, there are about 169 British soldiers killed in Iraq.
