- Britain has agreed to a US request to deploy the first
battalion of the Black Watch to a US-controlled area in the west of Iraq,
the defence secretary, Geoff Hoon, confirmed today.
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- Mr Hoon told the Commons that, with supporting units,
the deployment would involve around 850 personnel and would last
"weeks
rather than months".
-
- He would not confirm the location to which the troops
would be sent, but speculation, which he described as
"unhelpful",
has centred on the area around the town of Iskandariya, 25 miles south
of Baghdad.
-
- Mr Hoon said the decision to agree to the US request
- which he emphasised was military and not political - was based on the
advice of military commanders and aimed to help security ahead of Iraqi
elections scheduled for January.
-
- He said the British troops would continue to operate
the rules of engagement they had used in the south of the country, in
Basra.
He insisted these would be "robust enough", despite arguments
the sector close to Baghdad was more dangerous.
-
- US commanders had asked the UK to send the Black Watch
battalion to cover for their own forces so that they could be released
to join a widely expected assault on the rebel stronghold of Falluja by
US marines.
-
- Mr Hoon said there were no plans to send another 1,300
troops, as had been suggested, and that the British forces would remain
under the command of General Rollo, the UK's general officer commanding
in Iraq.
-
- While in the US sector, the Black Watch would have to
choreograph operations on a day to day basis with US commanders "but
any changes in the mission or the tasking would have to be referred back
to General Rollo", Mr Hoon said.
-
- The shadow defence secretary, Nicholas Soames, said the
Tories supported the redeployment as "a necessary military
contribution"
to the task of ensuring peace in the run-up to elections. But he added
that MPs would be relieved that Mr Hoon had ended days of "unnecessary
and unacceptable confusion".
-
- Interrupted by angry protests and shouts, the Tory
defence
spokesman and Mr Hoon clashed on which of them owed the families of those
serving in the Black Watch an apology. Mr Hoon rejected Mr Soames's
complaint
at the "shabby" way they had been treated in the episode,
insisting
they had been kept informed.
-
- Mr Soames urged Mr Hoon to confirm it was likely
additional
British troops would be needed in Iraq before the election, but Mr Hoon
said he expected the numbers of British forces in Iraq would continue to
decline.
-
- During the war phase of the fighting, he said, there
had been some 46,000 British personnel in Iraq, compared with about 8,500
now.
-
- He confirmed that the Black Watch would be replaced in
the south by the Scots Guards, now based in Cyprus.
-
- Mr Hoon said that while there were 130,000 US service
personnel in Iraq, only a third of these had the level of combat capacity
needed in certain sectors, and these were heavily committed across a
country
four-fifths the size of France.
-
- Mr Hoon's announcement followed a cabinet meeting this
morning, after which Tony Blair's official spokesman said: "There
was unanimous support from the cabinet for the troops and their commanders
on the ground, and respect for their judgments."
-
- It is understood the cabinet had backed the deployment
on the recommendation of the chief of the defence staff, General Sir
Michael
Walker. His seal of approval came after receiving the report of a British
reconnaissance team that had scouted the area where British troops are
to be sent.
-
- At a press conference, Sir Michael said he regarded the
US request as reasonable and justified and said there was a "clear-cut
operational imperative" for it. "It represents an important and
viable military task which we will be pleased to carry out," he
said.
-
- Asked what would happen if US forces got bogged down
in Falluja, he said that another unit would have to relieve the Black Watch
and this would not necessarily be British.
-
- Dissident Labour MPs expressed their concerns about the
redeployment in the Commons debate that followed Mr Hoon's
statement.
-
- Some, including a number who backed last year's invasion,
suspect the move has been designed to bolster George Bush in the run-up
to the US presidential election next month. Mr Blair has flatly denied
that suggestion.
-
- The prime minister said yesterday that the Black Watch
would be home for Christmas.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/
- Iraq/Story/0,2763,1332546,00.html
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