British troops to leave Iraq in nine months

MOST of the British troops serving in Iraq will be withdrawn in the next nine months, senior defence sources have disclosed.

Only a few hundred will remain after May next year, effectively ending Britain's involvement in the country after six years of fighting.

The Ministry of Defence insisted the move was backed by the United States, which it said was "intimately involved" in discussions about the withdrawal.

More than 4000 British troops are in southern Iraq despite pledges from Prime Minister Gordon Brown that numbers would have been reduced by now.

Mr Brown has been careful over the past few months not to specify a time for a withdrawal, but sources have given the clearest indication yet that Britain's involvement is poised to end.

The Iraqis are close to a deal with the Americans, which could mean US soldiers leave within three years, starting next northern summer.

Major General Barney White-Spunner, who has just finished a six-month tour in charge of the British force in southern Iraq, said Mr Brown's hope for a "fundamental mission change" in Iraq would be able to "take place next year".

Senior sources said it was now "fairly clear" that there would be a "pretty major reduction in troops" in Iraq early next year.

"We have achieved what we set out to achieve in Iraq," an official military source said. "So it is possible to envisage a mission next year which is in the early hundreds."

However, many soldiers are likely to be redeployed quickly to Afghanistan where fighting has intensified.

The precise details of the remaining number of troops, who will be based at Basra airport, is still to be agreed with the Iraqi Government, although detailed talks are believed to have been held with the country's Foreign Minister in London earlier this month.

The Ministry of Defence refused to be drawn on numbers. A spokesman said: "Although it is hoped that the UK military presence in Iraq will decrease significantly in the future, it is still too early to discuss the size and shape of a reduced UK force's footprint."

On Thursday, the Ministry of Defence announced the death of a soldier after his convoy was attacked by a suicide bomber. This took the British death toll in Iraq to 115.

At least 19 Shiite pilgrims heading to the holy city of Karbala for a religious festival were among 27 people killed in a spate of bomb blasts across Iraq.

In the deadliest of the attacks on Thursday, as many as 18 were killed in a suicide bombing among a crowd of pilgrims heading to the city, police Lieutenant Kazem al-Khafaji in Babil province said. He said the attack by two women suicide bombers also wounded at least 75 people.

There were contradictory reports, however, about the bombing in Iskandiriyah, 60 kilometres south of the capital, with the US military saying it believed only one woman was behind the deadly attack.