British troops pull out of central Basra base

British soldiers stand at attention during a ceremony of transferring the base to Iraqi forces

BASRA, Iraq, March 20 (Reuters) - British troops in Iraq's southern Basra oil port pulled out of their heavily attacked base in the heart of the city on Tuesday, the first to be handed to Iraqi forces who are slowly taking control of security.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said in February that Britain would begin withdrawing a quarter of its 7,000 troops, who are stationed mainly in and around Basra in Iraq's largely stable Shi'ite south, in the coming months.

The commander of British forces in southern Iraq, Major-General Jonathan Shaw, characterised the pullout, on the fourth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, as a repositioning of his troops and not a withdrawal.

He dismissed suggestions that British troops had been "bombed out" of the Old State Building in central Basra, a frequent target of mortar attack, saying the pullout was according to a timetable.

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