Six years after the invasion of Iraq, British troops formally ended their combat mission on Thursday when they handed over their airport base to a US brigade.
“The role of British ground forces is finished,” a defense official said.
Thursday’s ceremonies were in many ways symbolic. British forces had been winding down their presence in Basra for many weeks and had already handed over responsibility for security to Iraqis at the start of the year.
It was significant that UK forces handed over their base not to Iraq but the US. US forces will remain in Basra to protect an important supply route from Kuwait and help the Iraqi army and police force.
A memorial service was held in Basra for the 179 British personnel who have died since the invasion, attended by Defense Secretary John Hutton.
“I think when the history is written of this campaign, they will say of the British military: ‘We did a superb job,’” Hutton said.
All 4,000 remaining UK troops will have left the base by the end of this month, said defense officials, but around 400 will remain training Iraqi forces, mainly the navy, at Umm Qasr, Basra’s port.
Air Chief Marshal Jock Stirrup, chief of the UK defense staff, said that British forces had made an “outstanding contribution to the transition of Iraq from dictatorship and regional pariah to burgeoning democracy and constructive partner.”
General Richard Dannatt, the head of the British army, said: “The road to success has been long and, at times, painful ... As in any operation of this nature and complexity, things did not always develop as we might have expected. It is therefore critical that we, as an army and within defense as a whole, learn from our experiences in Iraq and implement those lessons for current and future operations.”
David Cameron, the leader of the UK’s opposition Conservative Party, said now that the departure of British forces was imminent, it was time the government announced an inquiry into the events leading up to the invasion of Iraq.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki marked the end of military operations by signing an agreement on economic and technical cooperation. Brown said after talks in London that the UK wanted to be involved in protecting oil supplies from Iraq, which produces nearly 2 million barrels of oil a day.
Maliki later joined senior Iraqi officials and business leaders at a London investment conference attended by representatives from more than 200 companies, including Shell, Rolls-Royce and Barclays Capital.
He said that his government was working to amend Iraqi law to allow foreign investors to own land in Iraq.
At present, foreign investors are only permitted to lease property for up to 50 years.
UK International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander said: “As the military-led phase of our engagement in Iraq ends we look forward to a future based on close economic and cultural ties.”
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