Perspective: British fear Shia backlash

British troops react after their convoy was hit by a roadside bomb on Saturday

Britain's ministers and military commanders are seriously concerned that attempts to rein in Shia militia, notably Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi army, in Baghdad could provoke his supporters in the Shia-dominated south, where British troops are based.

"If the situation gets worse in Basra the UK will be under pressure to do something similar [to the US]", a former senior British military officer said.

It was partly to pre-empt such an outcome that Gen Sir Richard Dannatt, the new head of the army, publicly expressed the hope in interviews last autumn that British troops should leave Iraq "sometime soon", making it clear that he meant within two years.

Despite the talk of symmetry in public, with Tony Blair's spokesman saying Britain was working "hand in glove" with its coalition partners and the Iraqi government, it seemed clear yesterday that the British and American paths in Iraq are diverging.

"The south is very different" was the refrain across Whitehall - in Downing Street, the Foreign Office, and at the Ministry of Defence.

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