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09/19/2004:
"Britain to cut troop levels in Iraq"
by Jason BurkeThe British Army is to start pulling troops out of Iraq next month despite the deteriorating security situation in much of the country, The Observer has learnt.
The main British combat force in Iraq, about 5,000-strong, will be reduced by around a third by the end of October during a routine rotation of units.
The news came amid another day of mayhem in Iraq, which saw a suicide bomber kill at least 23 people and injure 53 in the northern city of Kirkuk. The victims were queueing to join Iraq's National Guard.
Full Article: Guardian UK
Thousands of UK troops may be sent to Afghanistan next year
by Nick Meo and Robert Fox
Britain and the US are both set to step up their troop presence in Afghanistan, which faces a presidential election next month and a fraught parliamentary election early next year, that could see a confrontation with the country's powerful warlords.
The US has confirmed it will send up to 1,100 extra troops in time for the 9 October presidential vote, amid increasingly urgent pleas by the interim President, Hamid Karzai, for greater security and a warning by the American ambassador to Kabul, Zalmay Khalilzad, of a possible "Tet offensive" by militants in Afghan cities, echoing the uprising that hastened the departure of American forces from Vietnam.
A far bigger British deployment is being mooted, meanwhile, to take place early in 2005, a critical time when a series of dangerous security problems are expected to converge. The Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Mike Jackson, says plans have been made to send a headquarters staff and a brigade-sized force of around 8,000 peacekeeping soldiers to Afghanistan
Independent UK
