Britain faces 'stark choice over Basra'

A former military commander has warned that British forces in Basra face a stark choice to curb the rising death toll - either retake the city or abandon it.

Colonel Bob Stewart, who led British forces in Bosnia, said casualties were mounting because the Army was not able to "dominate the ground", which was allowing insurgents to operate in the area.

Col Stewart said Iraqi forces meant to replace British troops were "not good enough".

He said: "Either we retake control of that ground so that people can't, for example, rocket the Basra base or put an improvised explosive device at very short notice on to a route that one of our strike forces is going down, or we abandon it.

"The choice is either retake it and dominate the ground or accept that we can't. Perhaps we have been a bit too hasty in handing Basra back to the Iraqi army."

Col Stewart said UK forces in Iraq were in a "pretty invidious position".

"If we re-dominate the ground, we are then in a position to stop the attacks happening, but then we delay our departure," he said.

"If we don't re-dominate the ground, we have to accept casualties. That's pretty Catch-22 to me."

Earlier this week, US officials suggested the British had effectively lost control of southern Iraq.

But US military spokesman Rear Admiral Mark Fox dismissed the claim, saying "That is a totally inconsistent characterisation with how we view our coalition partners, the Brits. They are professional, they are competent, they are very capable."

© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.

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