Politics held up UK pull-out from Basra, says Army Commander

10.20.54pm UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 11th Sep 2007

Liberal Democrats at the London rally against war in Iraq

The British army's commander in Iraq has said British troops should have withdrawn from Basra Palace five months ago, but the pull-out was delayed because of 'high politics' following a request from the US. Brigadier James Bashall, commander of 1 Mechanised Brigade, said American pressure caused them to stay in the exposed outpost, since when 11 soldiers have been killed and 62 wounded in months of intense fighting. British forces were finally pulled out of the palace and back to Basra airport a week ago.

Brigadier Bashall told The Daily Telegraph: ''In April we could have come out and done the transition completely and that would have been the right thing to do but politics prevented that". The decision to remain in Basra was, he said, a consequence of "political strategy being played out at highest level". Menzies Campbell and the Liberal Democrats have consistently criticised the British government's 'slavish relationship' with the Bush administration, and called for an early withdrawal of British troops from Iraq. On Saturday, the MoD announced that Britain's deployment in Iraq would be cut by 500 as part of a plan announced in July to reduce UK troop numbers to 5,000. The US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, will today begin giving evidence to Congress on the success of the 'troop surge' plan. He is expected to argue that the strategy has cut sectarian violence and should be extended. But it is anticipated that he will accept gradual troop cuts, beginning early next year.

Sir Ming Campbell said "500 troops is a start, but it's a long way short of the total withdrawal which is necessary. While the strategy followed in Iraq by the US has been under constant review by the Iraq Study Group, by both houses of Congress, and now General Petraeus, the British government has failed to show the same openness. Rather than promoting debate regarding our future role, it has been closing it down. The government has still not explained what military purpose or political objectives are being served by our presence. Our future role in Iraq should be put at the top of the political agenda."