BASRA, Iraq | U.S. troops will move into southern Iraq early next year to replace departing British forces, the top U.S. general in Iraq said.
His comments came as Iraq’s major parliamentary parties reached a compromise Sunday to allow approval of a resolution allowing all foreign troops other than Americans to remain in Iraq until July. Britain has said its 4,000 troops will withdraw from the southern port city of Basra by the end of May.
Army Gen. Ray Odierno, the overall commander of U.S. and allied forces in Iraq, said in an interview with the Associated Press late Saturday that he is considering moving either a brigade or division headquarters as well as an undetermined number of combat troops to Iraq’s second-largest city.
Moving a headquarters unit to Basra would essentially give the U.S. complete responsibility there and across the rest of the country for providing training and support to all Iraqi security forces.
“It will be a smaller presence than what is here now. We think it’s important to maintain some presence down here just because we think Basra is an important city, and we think it’s important to have some oversight here,” Gen. Odierno told AP in Basra, where the general was briefed by British Maj. Gen. Andy Salmon about the area’s stability and preparations being made to withdraw.
Gen. Odierno said Multi-National Division-Center, which is responsible for the area south of Baghdad will expand south to the Persian Gulf and the Kuwait border. Basra is at the heart of the country’s vital oil industry.
After the Dec. 31 expiration of the U.N. mandate authorizing military operations in Iraq, the only coalition troops to remain will be the U.S., Britain, Australia, El Salvador, Estonia and Romania.
Abbas al-Bayati of the Shi’ite United Iraqi Alliance said Parliament will vote Monday after political blocs reached a compromise to approve the draft resolution. He told AP it would “give the government the authority to keep some troops for training purposes.”
The compromise comes after Iraq’s parliament twice rejected the resolution. If it is not passed before a U.N. mandate expires Dec. 31, those troops would have no legal ground to remain.
A separate agreement approved by the Iraqi government Dec. 4 allows the United States to keep troops in the country until the end of 2011. That agreement, which takes effect Jan. 1, gives Iraq oversight over the nearly 150,000 American troops now in the country.
Gen. Odierno has said that even after that summer deadline, some U.S. training teams will remain in Iraqi cities.
He also said no decision has been made to withdraw the nearly 22,000 Marines in Iraq, mostly in Anbar province, where insurgent violence is relatively low, despite comments from the Marine commandant that there was a greater role for his troops in Afghanistan.
“Any decision on force structure here in Iraq will be made by me,” he said, adding that he would then make recommendations to Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of all U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Chief among Gen. Odierno’s concerns about maintaining stability in Iraq is providing adequate security for the Jan. 31 Iraq provincial elections.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.