Report: UK to move half of 5,000 Basra force to Kuwait by December

Above: British airmen move to an air raid shelter in Kuwait in March, 2003.

British troop numbers in Iraq are expected to be halved by December, with about 2,500 soldiers moving to Kuwait, The Daily Telegraph has learnt.

A team of officers from Permanent Joint Headquarters in Northwood has spent the past week in Basra reviewing the number of soldiers needed following the withdrawal of the last battalion from Basra Palace a fortnight ago.

It is expected that they will recommend approximately halving the force of more than 5,000 now based at Basra air station after full control of the province is passed to the Iraqis, probably in November.

The troops leaving Iraq would operate from a new base in neighbouring Kuwait, from which they would escort convoys and train Iraqi forces.

Read the rest at the Telegraph

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