| I think this qualifies as a fair piece of self-justification. |
A top British commander in southern Iraq said attacks plunged 90 percent across the country's south after London withdrew its troops from the main city of Basra. The presence of British forces in downtown Basra, Iraq's second- largest city, was the single largest instigator of violence, Maj. Gen. Graham Binns told reporters Thursday on a visit to Baghdad's Green Zone. "We thought, 'If 90 percent of the violence is directed at us, what would happen if we stepped back?'" Binns said.
About 500 British troops moved out of a former Saddam Hussein palace at Basra's heart in early September, joining some 4,500 at a garrison at an airport on the city's edge. Since that pullback, there's been a "remarkable and dramatic drop in attacks," Binns said. Binns said the drop included attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces, which represented the bulk of overall violence there.
Last spring, British troops' daily patrols through central Basra led to "steady toe to toe battles with militias fighting some of the most tactically demanding battles of the war," Binns said. Now British forces rarely enter the city center, an area patrolled only by Iraqis.
The majority of attacks now target Iraqi forces, but even that figure has decreased since the intense battles of May and June, Binns said.
In mid-December, British forces are scheduled to return control of Basra province back to Iraqi officials—officially ending Britain's combat role in Iraq.
With an overwhelmingly Shiite population, Basra has not seen the level of sectarian violence that has torn Iraq apart since the February 2006 bombing of a Shiite shrine north of Baghdad. But it has seen major fighting between insurgents and coalition troops, as well as between Shiite militias vying for control of the city and its security forces.
British officials expected a spike in such "intra-militia violence" after they pulled back from the city's center, and were surprised to find none, Binns said. |