News / Politics
Rise in Sectarian Violence and Death Toll Leads to Plans for a British Withdrawal of Troops in Iraq.
Britain has plans to withdraw thousands of troops from war-torn Iraq by the end of next year. U.K. Defense Secretary Des Browne said “By the end of next year, I expect numbers of British forces in Iraq to be significantly lower, by a matter of thousands.”
There are currently 7,100 British troops stationed in Iraq.
Growing sectarian violence and higher death tolls amongst British troops has led to a public outcry to remove troops from Iraq. While Britain has drawn up plans to reduce their number of troops Browne was adamant that it would not be a complete withdrawal from the area. He emphasized that even with the removal of troops, Britain would have emergency response units ready at a moments notice.
Since the 2003 U.S. led invasion 126 British troops have been killed in Iraq. Public pressure has mounted on Prime Minister Tony Blair to remove troops from Iraq as the death toll mounts and civil war appears imminent.
Britain is not the only one to draw up plans for a removal of troops. Italy has plans to remove their remaining troops by the end of the week and Poland will remove their troops by late next year.
The U.S. has approximately 136,000 troops in Iraq.
The goal of the U.S. led coalition has been to train Iraqi forces to assume control over their country. Recent bombings and insurgent attacks have made that task difficult
