Al-Qaida says UK fleeing Basra
Britain handed over control of Basra to Iraqi forces yesterday
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Monday, 17, Dec 2007 06:24
Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has branded the handover of Basra province to Iraqi forces as an attempt by coalition forces to "flee" the country.
In an interview conducted with the terrorist group's media arm, he claimed fighters belonging to al-Qaida were gaining the upper hand across the country and that the transfer of control to local forces was proof of this.
The al-Qaida second-in-command said Iraq was one of the "most important" areas where Islamic insurgents were fighting and claimed US forces were losing their grip on the country.
But in a video of the interview posted on Islamist websites, Zawahiri acknowledged local tribes who had previously fought with al-Qaida were now fighting against them. He condemned fighters who defected as traitors and called on groups within the country to fight for the Islamic State in Iraq, a coalition of insurgents of which al-Qaida is a part.
He also claimed the US was trying to deceive its own people about progress made in the Middle Eastern country through its "gigantic propaganda machine" and compared the present situation facing American forces in Iraq to that of Vietnam.
In addition, Zawahiri called on people to send in questions to him via a website so that he could answer them in an interview next month.
Basra is the ninth out of Iraq's 18 provinces to be returned to the control of the country's own army and the last of four provinces UK troops were initially responsible for.
About 4,500 British soldiers remain deployed in Basra, although that number is set to halve over the coming months.
In the weeks following the US-led invasion of March 2003 and the toppling of Saddam Hussein, the UK military presence in Basra was ten times that number.
A date for the army's final withdrawal from Iraq has not been set, with ministers stressing that British troops will remain in Basra in an 'over-watch' role to train Iraqi soldiers.
Click here for a summary of the security situation in Iraq