British Hand Over Basra to Iraqis
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British forces gave up military control of the final region under their supervision after four and a half years.
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Extra UK troops arrive in Iraq's second city Basra  ahead of the elections.
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BASRA, Iraq  - Britain handed responsibility for security in Basra province to Iraqi forces on Sunday, effectively marking the end of nearly five years of British control of the southern part of Iraq.
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London - Britain agreed on Thursday to meet a United States request and redeploy a battalion of British troops into volatile central Iraq, despite strong opposition within the governing Labour Party.
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LONDON -- Responding to a US request, Britain agreed yesterday to transfer 850 troops from relatively calm southern Iraq into a stronghold of the Iraqi insurgency near Baghdad.
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LONDON, Sept. 3 -- British troops completed a withdrawal from downtown Basra on Monday, moving to an airport outside the city, their last base in Iraq. Prime Minister Gordon Brown called the move part of a British strategy to shift from combat to an "overwatch" role.
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The Iraqi government on Thursday welcomed the British decision to withdraw troops from Iraq, saying it is in line with plans for Iraqi forces to assume security for the country.
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Five hundred British troops began withdrawing Sunday from their base in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, the Ministry of Defense said.
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BASRA, Iraq  - British troops withdrew Saturday from radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's main office in the southern city of Basra, a day after occupying the building and seizing an arms cache in fighting that killed three and wounded five, the British military and police said.
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British forces in Basra were today preparing to move from southern Iraq to a more turbulent region near Baghdad, by parading and praying ahead of the troop transfer which has caused outrage back home.
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BASRA, Iraq  - British troops were quitting the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Sunday night in another step towards handing over the province to Iraqi control and paving the way for an eventual withdrawal of British forces from Iraq.
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British and Iraqi troops set out Wednesday on an ambitious mission to pacify the southern city of Basra, root out its corrupt police and help the residents rebuild.
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BRITAIN agreed today to send 850 British soldiers closer to Baghdad, freeing up US troops to step up attacks on insurgent strongholds.
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UK forces are to hand back control of security in Basra province to Iraq, four-and-a-half years after the invasion.
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British forces formally handed over responsibility for Basra province Sunday, the last region in Iraq under their control.
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The operation to hand over security in Basra to Iraqi forces has been completed and successful, Tony Blair says.
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Saddam Hussein's palace is the only British base in Basra after troops withdraw from police headquarters.