Blair 'to announce UK troops withdrawal'

Source

Prime Minister Tony Blair will announce on Wednesday a new timetable for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq, with 1,500 to return home in several weeks, the BBC reported.

Blair will also tell the House of Commons during his regular weekly appearance there that a total of about 3,000 British soldiers will have left southern Iraq by the end of 2007, if the security there is sufficient, the British Broadcasting Corp said, quoting unidentified senior government sources.

The BBC said Blair was not expected to say when the rest of Britain's forces would leave Iraq. Britain currently has about 7,100 soldiers there.

Blair's Downing Street office refused to comment on the BBC report.

But Blair said last month that he would report to MPs on his future strategy in Iraq following the completion of Operation Sinbad, a joint British and Iraqi mission targeting police corruption and militia influence in the southern city of Basra.

On Sunday, Blair told the BBC that the operation was completed.

Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said in January that Operation Sinbad offered the prospect of a "turning point for Iraq, hopefully in the near future."

Treasury chief Gordon Brown, who is likely to succeed Blair by September, has said he hoped several thousand British soldiers would be withdrawn by December.

Blair to announce Iraq troop withdrawal
Wednesday Feb 21 09:35 AEDT

AP - British Prime Minister Tony Blair will announce a new timetable for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq, with 1,500 to return home in several weeks, the BBC reports.

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Blair will also say during his weekly appearance at the House of Commons that a total of about 3,000 British soldiers will have left southern Iraq by the end of 2007, if security there is sufficient, the British Broadcasting Corp, quoting unidentified government sources.


So when the US pulls its troops out prior to the US election, that will leave on the Australian Army to take on Al Qeada in Iraq. Lets see if Coward then has a change of mind and bring them home alive, or if they stay, coming back in body bags.

Await an 180 degree turn with a pike and a forward sommersault from Howard on the issue of troops in Iraq.

so who is he going to get to help if Uncle Sam pulls out:

New Zealand won't go, Fiji well they won't go, Indonesia definitely not! Well Howard has made us outcasts in our own region...we might have to get East timor into bat for us

Monts, get ready for conscription

HAHAHAHAHA, with Howard announcing that he is about to send more troops in, the UK and US are preparing a mass pull out...Lets see if Howard has the balls to remain in Iraq and if he actually sends more over...

Tony Blair told the House of Commons last night (our time) that he intended to withdraw troops from the Southern region of Iraq in the Basra area after he mentioned that his Military commanders had deemed that the British forces had done the job in securing the area and that the Iraqi security personnel were equipped to continue the job. Blair had said that those troops numbering 1500 would be gradually brought back to the UK. But he would keep over 5000 troops to secure the Iraqi and Iranian border as well as the main supply lines throughout the country.

Reference article from ABC