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UK considers sending more troops to Iraq

British Defence Minister Geoff Hoon, middle, during a visit to the British HMS Ocean naval ship moored at Rotterdam on Thursday. Hoon was yesterday considering beefing up British forces in Iraq in response to persistent attacks on UK and US coalition forces. PHOTO: EPA

British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon was considering yesterday whether to beef up British troop levels in Iraq in response to persisting attacks on US and British occupation forces.

"In the light of events in Iraq over past weeks, the defence secretary has asked for a review of the forces and resources required to support UK operations," the Ministry of Defence said Thursday.

Britain now has 10,500 troops in Iraq, mainly in the south of the country.

The review was announced as US Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld revealed that "maybe another division" would be needed in Iraq, where the US has 140,000 troops on the ground.

"Should the total number go up for security? Yes I think so," said Rumsfeld en route to visit US forces in Iraq. "But I think it's going to be on the Iraqi side and on the international side more than on the US side."

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, at a Downing Street press conference on Thursday, said British force levels were "constantly under review."

British troops in Iraq * 10,500 troops stationed in the south of the country * 11 soldiers killed since May 1, the formal end of combat * A brigade group of 5,000 men training in Germany is seen as possible reinforcement Source: AFP

"But there have been no decisions that have been taken" on changing those levels, Blair said, adding that changes would depend on the assessment of military commanders on the ground.

General Freddy Viggers, deputy commander of coalition forces in Iraq, said later on Thursday that the success of operations was dependent on the right sort of troops rather than on troop numbers.

"It's not about numbers, it's about the right sorts of troops, to get involved with the Iraqis, to get them doing more for themselves in the security environment," he said.

Viggers, the British commander appointed to serve at the US military headquarters in Baghdad, told BBC's Newsnight program that the coalition wanted to double the numbers of Iraqi police, the civil defense core and soldiers controlling the borders over the next two months.

"The task we have at the moment we can cope with. What we are looking to do now as fast as we can is to put more Iraqis into the front rank of all the various security operations," Viggers said.

The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on Thursday that Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was pressing for 5,000 extra British troops to be sent to Iraq to avert "strategic failure" of the coalition's efforts to keep peace.

Eleven British soldiers have been killed in attacks in Iraq since US President George W. Bush declared on May 1 that major combat operations in the war to overthrow Saddam Hussein were over.

Sixty-seven US troops have died in attacks blamed on Saddam loyalists and other extremists.

This week in New York, the US is circulating a draft resolution at the UN Security Council proposing a multinational security force in Iraq that would ease the burden on US and British forces.

Straw's concerns about the "deteriorating" situation in Iraq were spelled out in notes drawn up for a meeting between himself and Blair, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Drafted by civil servants and fully approved by the foreign secretary, the notes argued that Britain's current Iraq force was incapable of providing the level of reconstruction needed in the country.

A senior British military expert fingered on Thursday a British brigade training in Germany as possible reinforcements.

"Let me put this diplomatically. A larger deployment of troops in that southern area of Iraq where the British troops are would certainly enhance security," said Charles Heyman, a senior military analyst for Jane's Consulting Group.

"We have got extra troops in the short term, there is a brigade group of 5,000 men training in Germany," Heyman said.
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