Britain may cut its force in Iraq in half by the middle of next year after handing over security responsibility for the south to Iraqis within nine months, a senior British commander said today.
The commander said Britain would leave "quite a significantly smaller force than we've got now, but probably in the region of 3,000 to 4,000 people based in a single location".
Britain handed over responsibility for one of the southern provinces it controls to Iraqi forces in July, and the commander said it hopes to hand over a second province next month.
Most of Britain's 7,000 troops in Iraq are based around the second city of Basra, where the commander said a transition to Iraqi control could take place in the first quarter of 2007.