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Attacks down after Basra pull-out
17.11.07
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Attacks have plunged by 90% in southern Iraq since Britain withdrew its troops from the main city of Basra, their commander has said.
Their presence in central Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, was the single largest trigger for violence, Major General Graham Binns said.
"We thought, 'If 90% of the violence is directed at us, what would happen if we stepped back?'," Gen Binns said.
About 500 British troops moved out of one of Saddam Hussein's palaces in the heart of Basra in early September, joining some 4,500 at a garrison at an airport on the city's edge.
Since then there has been a "remarkable and dramatic drop in attacks," Gen Binns said in an interview in Baghdad on Thursday.
"The motivation for attacking us was gone, because we're no longer patrolling the streets," he said.
Last spring, British troops' daily patrols through central Basra led to "steady toe to toe battles with militias fighting some of the most tactically demanding battles of the war," Gen Binns said. Now British forces rarely enter the city centre, an area patrolled only by Iraqis.
The majority of attacks now target Iraqi forces, but overall violence is still a tenth of what it was in May and June.
"They're increasingly in the frame, more at risk, as they take over more responsibility," Gen Binns said of his Iraqi counterparts.
British forces are scheduled to return control of Basra province back to Iraqi officials next month, officially ending Britain's combat role in Iraq.
