LONDON, Oct. 22 (AP) — Britain has gone “quite far” toward handing over control of southern Iraq to local forces, Defense Secretary Des Browne said Sunday.
But Mr. Browne did not say whether he agreed with Foreign Minister Kim Howells, who said Saturday that “in a year or so there will be adequately trained Iraqi soldiers and security forces” to take over most duties from American-led troops.
Mr. Browne told Sky News during a visit to Afghanistan on Sunday: “We are quite far down the process of transferring responsibility to the Iraqis. In any event, we have handed over two of four provinces.”
He said British troops would leave “when the job is done. This is a process and not an event.”
British officials have spoken in recent months of cutting troop levels in Iraq from the current 7,000 to between 3,000 and 4,000 by mid-2007, but no firm date has been set.
Last week the country’s top soldier, Gen. Sir Richard Dannatt, called for British troops to be withdrawn “sometime soon,” and said their presence was provoking rather than preventing violence.