The US military is ready to intervene in southern Iraq to quell any unrest as British forces prepare to pull out from their last base in the oil port of Basra, the Pentagon said Thursday.
Press reports in London suggest that the British departure and handover of security control to Iraqi forces may be imminent, although the official line is that it will take place before the end of the year.
US forces will not allow any security advances in southern Iraq to be abandoned, Brigadier General Richard Sherlock, deputy director for operational planning at the Department of Defense, told reporters.
As requirements on the ground dictate, "they will reposition forces with the battlefield geography in mind so that they don't give up gains that they've made in different areas, including in Basra and the south," he said.
"As the UK forces reposition ... all that will be taken into account as well as what the security needs for each region are," Sherlock said.
When the 500 British troops evacuate a former palace of Saddam Hussein in Basra and withdraw to a desert airbase, they will leave behind a city in the grip of a brutal turf war between rival militia.
Nevertheless, Iraqi forces and war-weary civilians are hopeful that the redeployment, which will leave just 5,000 British troops in the country to train and support Iraqi forces, will herald a new start for Basra.
