DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - U.K./IRAN" "ONLY IRAQIS CAN MAKE IRAQ BETTER- - - BUT THEY NEED HELP"

Report urges Britain to redefine Iraq strategy

LONDON - Britain needs to redefine its strategy in Iraq by ending military operations and focusing more on training home-grown forces so it can then withdraw its own troops, a wide-ranging report recommends.

The Iraq Commission Report said a change of course was needed because it was clear that the ‘initial, over-ambitious vision’ of the US-led coalition could no longer be achieved.

‘There are no easy options left in Iraq, only painful ones... The UK government needs, therefore, to redefine its objectives,’ the 119-page study, which was published Saturday evening, concluded.

The report’s central recommendation was for Britain to ‘preserve and underpin’ the territorial integrity of Iraq, promote regional engagement in its reconstruction and prevent Iraq being used as a base for Al Qaeda.

‘If there was one view that was given in evidence to the commission time and again it was that ultimately: only Iraqis can make Iraq better -- but they need help,’ it stated.

For Britain, which has 5,500 troops in southern Iraq, that meant working with the United Nations and Iraq’s neighbours to support and promote the country’s reconstruction and build up its state infrastructure and government.

‘The UK should refocus its military activity, progressively ceasing offensive military operations and bringing to completion its programme of training and building the capacity of the Iraqi security forces,’ it added.

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1) Report urges Britain to redefine Iraq strategy