Reid: Troops will stay in Iraq ’till job is done’
The defence secretary John Reid has said that Britain would increase the number of its soldiers deployed in Iraq if necessary.
Dr Reid’s statement on Sunday followed a press report claiming that the government had been forced to shelve secret plans to reduce troop numbers in the country amid fears that Iraq is sliding towards civil war.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has denied the claim made by the Sunday Telegraph which says it has obtained a leaked government document suggesting that ministers hoped to reduce the number of British soldiers in Iraq by 3,000, by the middle of next year.
Speaking to ITV’s Jonathan Dimbleby show, Dr Reid said: “We don’t need them [more troops] at the moment, if that’s necessary, of course we would do that.”
“There’s no quitting and running, we’re there until the job is done,” he added.
“Our troops will be there until such times as the conditions are met, those conditions being the Iraqis themselves having such democratic control and such security forces as they can take the lead,” added Dr Reid.
The MoD has confirmed that soldiers from the 7th Armoured Brigade, the renowned Desert Rats, will be redeployed to Iraq before the end of the year, suggesting that British soldiers could remain in the troubled country well into 2006, the Reuters news agency has reported.
Responding to the Sunday Telegraph’s claims regarding the alleged secret plan to withdraw troops, the department said it had never set a timetable for pulling out its soldiers from Iraq.
There are currently 8,500 British troops deployed in the country.
The Conservatives have warned the UK’s army is “overstretched” and has criticised the MoD over planned cuts affecting the armed forces.
“The Army is overstretched and under-manned. Iraq is a mess and thousands of soldiers will be sent to Afghanistan next year,” Tory defence spokesman Andrew Robathan is reported as saying in the Sunday Telegraph.
“And the MoD is still bent on cutting four infantry battalions,” he added.
