Hoon seeks to reassure on Iraq deployment
The Secretary of State for Defence has told the House of Commons that America has requested the deployment of some UK troops into American controlled areas in Iraq.
Geoff Hoon sought to reassure MPs that no decision on the request has yet been made, and announced that a reconnaissance group would be dispatched to the area, with a report due in mid week. When a decision has been made, Mr Hoon promised to inform the House.
However, he rejected outright rumours circulating in the press that UK troops might be dispatched to Baghdad or Falluja.
The exact area where the troops would be sent to was not made clear, but there are reports that troops may be required in Iskandariya, south of Baghdad, whilst the American troops currently there are dispatched to Falluja to take part in an offensive against insurgents there.
It is thought around 650 troops have been requested; with the Black Watch regiment the most likely candidates to be dispatched.
Mr Hoon stressed that the request was “routine” and British forces had previously operated outside the British controlled areas, and indeed that the RAF operate over the whole of Iraq.
The Defence Secretary also rejected outright suggestions made over the weekend that the request had any connection with the upcoming American presidential elections, saying that the only elections with which the deployment was connected was the Iraqi elections in January.
If the American request is granted, Mr Hoon stressed that the British forces will have a specific task and area to operate in, but the rules of engagement would remain the same.
He stressed that there was a “very clear operational justification for this” and promised that attention would be given to the provision of reserve troops in the British controlled areas.
As to the question of the morale of the Black Watch troops, Mr Hoon said he had been “left in no doubt” of the commitment of Black Watch to take part in operation.
Nicholas Soames, the Shadow Defence Secretary, told the House that he feared that any such deployment would leave a “big capability gap” in the British controlled southern areas. He also called on the Defence Secretary to spell out in detail the details of any new command and control arrangements, in particular whether they would be under direct American control.
This point was also picked up by the Liberal Democrat defence spokesman Paul Keetch, who pointed to the fact that the US has 130,000 military personnel in Iraq, and asked why other US forces could not move into the area.
