InfoAnda - British troops begin Iraq pullout

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Yahoo! My Yahoo! Mail Yahoo! Search Search: Sign InNew User? Sign Up News Home - Help Navigation Primary Navigation Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Top Stories Most Popular Secondary Navigation Search Search: British troops begin Iraq pullout AFP - Wednesday, April 1 BASRA, Iraq (AFP) - - British troops launched their pullout from Iraq on Tuesday with the lowering of a Royal Marines flag and handover of a Basra base to US control six years after their joint invasion. ADVERTISEMENT A ceremony in the southern province of Basra marked the official start of a months-long process ending a role that kicked off with the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. "Our nations are bonded by the blood we have shed together. That is a bond that no man can break," said General Ray Odierno, senior US military officer in Iraq, shortly before a US flag went up and the Royal Marines colours went down. "You have restored hope where chaos reigned," he said before an audience of about 300 invited guests including top US, British and Iraqi officers and diplomats from all three countries. The ceremony was a mark of recognition of the 179 British soldiers, airmen and sailors who have died in Iraq over the past six years. "This occasion is about the countless number of men and women from the far-flung corners of the United States and from Great Britain who have striven which such courage here in Iraq," said British chief of base staff, Airchief Marshal Jock Stirrup. He paid tribute "in particular to those who made the ultimate sacrifice." Another British officer earlier told AFP: "Although this is the start of a withdrawal, there is still work to be done and that will continue until the last British soldier has left the country." Major General Andy Salmon, the senior British officer in Basra, handed over the southern base to an American commander, in a key step towards all foreign troops leaving the country and a full return to Iraqi sovereignty. The colours of the coalition's Multinational Division South-East, a specially-inscribed Royal Marines flag, were lowered and replaced with the standard of the US Army's 10th Mountain Division. Britain, under then prime minister Tony Blair, was America's key ally when president George W. Bush ordered his forces to invade Iraq in March 2003 to overthrow president Saddam. British troop numbers in the campaign were the second largest, peaking at 46,000 in March and April 2003 at the height of combat operations that resulted in the dictator's ouster and eventual execution for crimes against humanity. A deal signed by Baghdad and London last year agreed that the last 4,100 British soldiers would complete their mission -- primarily training the Iraqi army -- by June, before a complete withdrawal from the country in late July. Tuesday's departure began almost 50 years after Britain's previous exit from Iraq, in May 1959, when the last soldiers left Habbaniyah base near the western town of Fallujah, ending a presence that dated back to 1918. The Iraqi army's senior officer in the province used a farewell feast at Basra's Shaat al-Arab Hotel at the weekend to praise Britain for its support in the wake of Saddam's fall. "I would like to thank the British nation for the assistance they have provided to help rid us of dictatorship and live in freedom and democracy," said Major General Hawedi Mohammed. Basra, Iraq's third-largest city and a strategic oil hub, had been under British command since the invasion, but the province and its airport returned to Iraqi control three months ago. As well as training the Iraqi army, Britain has been key in the rebirth of the war-battered country's navy. A Royal Navy training team is based at the southern port of Umm Qasr and its role is expected to continue although a new agreement has yet to be reached between the two governments. The British pullout comes as the US military also steps up preparations to leave Iraq. Relations between London and Baghdad should in theory revert to the same footing as those between other sovereign countries when British troops complete their withdrawal. Under a US-Iraqi security agreement signed last November, American troops must withdraw from major towns and cities by June 30 and from the whole country by the end of 2011. 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