UK Troops Begin Iraq Withdrawal

UK Troops Begin Iraq Withdrawal

news.bbc.co.uk

British forces have begun their official withdrawal from Iraq after the UK's commander in the south of the country handed over to a US general.

Most of Britain's 4,000 troops will leave by 31 May, the official end-of-combat date.

The Americans are also reducing their numbers, with two brigades due to leave the province of Al-Anbar, once the heartland of Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

However, the bulk of US troops are not due to leave until the end of 2011.

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I thought Obama was getting the US troops out by March 31st (today), not the UK? Well, well done UK troops for holding up in Basra for so long! Welcome home!

And sorry to the US soldiers for being let down by your president all the time for making false promises about your returning home!

I guess Obama's administration will just move y'all to Pakistan anyway, and pay a visit to you every once so often...

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

UK troops will be going to the `stan anyway , and US troops will be leaving by the end of the year (12,000) leave the cities by june and leave the country by end 2010

Originally posted by MightyAl


I thought Obama was getting the US troops out by March 31st (today), not the UK? Well, well done UK troops for holding up in Basra for so long! Welcome home!

I think the majority of the 4,000 troops remaining in Basra will be withdrawn by May 31st, so there's another couple of months... but that'll basically be spent packing things up, shipping some of it home and leaving the rest for the Iraqis. A few hundred British troops will remain in Iraq after the May deadline to continue training the Iraqi military, though, and I don't think there are any plans to withdraw the SAS from their operations in Baghdad and elsewhere.