Top U.K. Commander backtracks on comments

A British soldier in Iraq. 119 British troops have been lost in Iraq since the start of hostilities, with 87 killed in action.

LONDON, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- Britain's top soldier has defended his calls for troop withdrawals from Iraq, saying his intention is to "speak up for what is right for the army."

Gen. Richard Dannatt, chief of the General Staff, said in defending his call for troops to pull out of Iraq "sometime soon" that he believes his comments "were neither substantially new or substantially newsworthy," the BBC reported Friday.

Dannatt denied a "chasm" with the British government, which has said the country's troops remain in Iraq "at the express wish" of the Iraqi government.

"It was never my intention to have this hoo-ha which people have thoroughly enjoyed overnight in trying to suggest there is a chasm between myself as head of the army and the prime minister or between myself as head of the army and the secretary of state for defense," he said.

Dannatt said that by "sometime soon" he meant troops should be brought home "when the mission is substantially done."

From UPI

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