Petraeus: No U.S. troops to Basra

Left: Members of the Mahdi Army celebrate the withdawal of British troops from Basra last Friday.

The top U.S. commander in Iraq said on Wednesday he did not envisage sending U.S. troops to Basra, despite disquiet in Washington about Britain's pullout from the city.

Army Gen. David Petraeus said Shi'ite political parties and militias were engaged in a sometimes violent struggle for power in Iraq's second city but he believed the factions and Iraqi security forces could resolve problems there.

"We're in a wait-and-see approach with Basra," Petraeus said at a news conference in Washington. "But we have every expectation that Basra will be resolved by Iraqis."

British troops pulled out of their Basra Palace base at the start of this month, redeploying to an air base outside the Shi'ite-dominated southern city.

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