Basra's residents expressed pride and satisfaction today at the news that the British troops had slipped out of the city overnight after more than four years of occupation, and most gave credit to the Mahdi Army militia for having driven them out.
But some feared that the decision to withraw the last UK battle group in the city from their base at Basra Palace would remove any remaining restraints on Basra's warring militias and unleash more killings and kidnappings.
Major-General Mohan al-Firaji, commander of Iraqi security operations in Basra, set the tone with an early morning press conference in which he declared: “We have control of the palace. We are in charge now, and the army has orders to allow no-one inside until the Prime Minister decides what to do with it.”
The highly symbolic pullout began at around 10pm local time last night, when residents reported seeing a convoy of tanks, Land Rovers and armoured personnel carriers headed towards the main UK at Basra airport, where the 500-strong 4th Battalion The Rifles joined the other 5,000 UK troops still in Iraq.
More here @ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article2378371.ece
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