Last British army unit pulls out of Iraq

BRITAIN’S MILITARY deployment in Iraq formally ended yesterday without ceremonial finery and fanfare since troops had withdrawn ahead of the deadline set last year.

The final unit to depart was a contingent of 100 naval officers who wait in Kuwait for the Iraqi parliament to reconvene in September to reconsider an agreement for British training of the fledgling Iraqi navy.

British troops continue to play a part in a small Nato mission upgrading Iraqi ground forces.

Britain’s six years in Iraq have been mired in bitter controversy over a war waged by the US and Britain on the pretext, proved false, that former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was manufacturing weapons of mass destruction.

On Thursday, Britain launched an inquiry into the decision to prosecute a war designed to topple the Iraqi regime, and the conduct of the fighting and occupation.

Investigators will examine the case for war, question decision-makers, including former prime minister Tony Blair, and reach independent conclusions which could be critical of the government.

As the key ally of former US president George W Bush, Mr Blair dispatched 46,000 troops to Iraq in March 2003 alongside 160,000 US troops.

The British were initially welcomed in Basra, their area of operations, as liberators of the majority Shia population.

British troops exercised control lightly, while US forces used a heavy hand against an insurgency rising in Baghdad, the west and north.

But by the end of 2004, Shia fundamentalists had taken over Basra and British troops also came under attack.

They withdrew to Basra’s airport, leaving the region to Shia militants who persecuted Sunnis and Christians and imposed strict social codes on residents.

In March 2008, British armour and troops joined Iraqi security forces to battle the militias which eventually accepted a ceasefire negotiated by Tehran, the ally of Iraqi Shias.

Since the invasion, 179 British troops have died in Iraq.

Australia also ended its troop presence in Iraq this week, three days ahead of the Friday deadline, leaving some 132,000 US troops on their own in a Multi-National Force which will not change its name until next January.

US troops, which redeployed from Iraq’s cities and towns at the end of last month, are due to leave the country at the end of 2011.