Iraqi Army Forces Ready To Receive Basra Security File
Baghdad- Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said on Monday that Iraq’s armed forces are ready to receive the Basra security file.
During his meeting with U.S. Central Command. Admiral William J. Fallon, al-Maliki said “Our armed forces are ready to receive the security file in Basra and will continue their efforts in facing gunmen throughout Iraq in cooperation with tribal men,” the premier said in a statement released by the cabinet and received by the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown paid a visit to the province last night.
A well-informed source said that Brown conferred with his Iraqi counterpart over the phone and said that “they agreed to handover the Basra security file in two weeks.”
The British forces in Basra, 590 km south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, maintain 5,250 troops within the Multi-National Forces in Iraq after withdrawing 1,850 soldiers over the past few months.
Britain was the United States’ prime ally in the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Basra is located 590 km south of Baghdad.
(VOI)