Topic: 'We were not forced out,' Britain tells Iraqi town

Team Infidel

Media: AFP
Byline: N/A
Date: 06 September 2006

AMARA, Iraq, Sept 6, 2006 (AFP) - British forces in Iraq sought to convince
citizens of this restive southern city on Wednesday that their recent
evacuation of a nearby military camp had not been forced by insurgent
attacks.

Last month British troops left Camp Abu Naji outside Amara that had come
under repeated mortar attack from Shiite militia groups in the city.

Immediately after the coalition forces pulled out, gangs of looters moved in
and stripped the barrack blocks bare, carting off roofing and
airconditioners.

Shiite gunmen linked to the Mahdi Army of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr
celebrated the British withdrawal as a victory, boasting they had liberated
Amara from an occupying force.

British commanders, however, insisted that the troops had instead been
redeployed for another mission in rural areas near Iraq's border with Iran
in order to prevent weapons smuggling.

On Thursday, a British statement released in Amara said: "There are some
criminal elements in your beautiful province who claim that they expelled or
dismissed multinational forces from Misan province.

"They claim that their violence and sabotage forced us to leave the camp.
This is not true," the statement insisted. British troops had been able to
leave Amara because Iraqi security forces were now ready to take over
control.

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