Military Chief: Britain will hand over control of Basra by end of year

Above: Demonstrators burn American and British flags at a protest in Basra last Thursday. Left: Gunmen battle with British forces in Basra last week. Basra is Iraq's second largest city and its only port.

British troops are likely to hand control of the southern Iraqi city of Basra to local forces by the end of the year, the head of Britain's armed forces said Thursday.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the chief of defense staff, said a decision on exactly when responsibilities would be ceded to Iraq's police and military will be taken in the next few months.

"We are very close to being able to hand over Basra in my judgment," Stirrup told British Broadcasting Corp. radio. "Just when we will reach that point is at the moment uncertain but I am fairly confident it will be in the second half of the year"...

Stirrup said he believed Britain's military had succeeded in southern Iraq, but acknowledged security problems remained.

"Our mission was to get the place and the people to a state where the Iraqis could run that part of their country if they chose to and we are very nearly there," he said. "Our mission was not to make the place look like somewhere green and peaceful."

Read the rest at the International Herald Tribune

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