BRITISH forces remained firmly out of the fray today as fierce clashes with Shia militias in Basra entered their second day.
At least 40 people have been killed and upwards of 200 injured in the city after Iraqi security forces launched a major operation to suppress militant groups vying for control.
A further 15 were said to have died in Sadr City, Baghdad's main Shia
district, with scores more injured as the fighting in Basra sparked clashes elsewhere in Iraq.
But with the epicentre of the fighting just a few miles from where the bulk of the UK's remaining 4,100 troops in southern Iraq are garrisoned, British commanders insisted it was "highly unlikely" they would get directly involved.
UK jets operating out of the huge Basra Airport base, the last British garrison in the country, have continued to provide air cover for Iraqi forces on the ground.
And Iraqi helicopters have made repeated stops at the British camp – known as the "Cob" (Contingency Operating Base) – to refuel and resupply.
But with the operation expected to last at least two to three more days, UK ground troops remain at the camp in the first big test of the "hands off" approach formalised with the transfer of Basra Province to full Iraqi control in December.
British troops have not operated inside the city limits since September when they pulled out of their Basra Palace base following an informal agreement known as the "accommodation" which dramatically reduced militia attacks.
While elsewhere in the country US forces have been fighting side-by-side with Iraqis to contain the burgeoning uprising, British commanders insisted they would not play a direct part unless the Iraqis requested they do so.
Major Tom Holloway, UK military spokesman in Iraq, said: "The Iraqi authorities have planned and are executing the operation, it is very much their business.
"Our role is to support them and has been to support them since we went to provincial Iraqi control back in December 2007.
"We are providing some support to the Iraqi forces. That hasn't changed and I suspect that it's highly unlikely that we will actually go into the city.
"The Iraqi government is doing a good job in the operation and it's obviously an indication of how much importance they put on it that the Prime Minister (Nouri Maliki) is personally overseeing it."
His comments came after retired US General Jack Keane, a former vice chief of staff, indicated support for British troops to play a more active role.
He said UK forces re-engaging with Iraqi forces on the ground "certainly has to be an option".
"It should be on the table, if the Iraqis want that to take place," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
He said the British strategy in Basra had been to transfer military control to the Iraqis "based on their growth and development", and an improving security situation.
"But the fact is the situation in Basra is changing and evolving in Basra and the southern provinces.
"The major issue, I think, particularly for the coalition and the Iraqi government in the south is the growing Iranian influence and we must compete with it."
General Keane said the "model" which had worked in other parts of the country – such as Baghdad and Anbar province – was for coalition forces to work with Iraqi forces to "hunt down the leaders of the organisations that we are going against".
Major Holloway defended the original decision to hand control for security over to Iraqi forces but said that the situation on the ground had since deteriorated.
"I don't think anyone was outrageously or erroneously optimistic," he said.
"I think that at the time when we left Basra city, and indeed when he handed over security responsibility for the province, the time was right.
"I think events have moved on in the intervening period, most notably that Iraqi militias have been struggling for power and influence in the city.
"Obviously they can all see that Basra has great potential, sitting as it does on a sea of oil. It has fantastic human resources, it's a university city, the people are well trained and there's a marked mercantile spirit."
The full article contains 709 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
