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"At a ceremony on Sunday, Iraq's security forces are to assume overall command of Basra for the first time since Saddam Hussein was deposed in 2003.
The move, known in military jargon as "going PIC", which stands for Provincial Iraqi Control, paves the way for UK troop numbers in Iraq's second city to fall to 2,500 by the spring.
Maj Gen Graham Binns, the commanding officer of forces in south-east Iraq, said that the Iraqi army had been rated capable of imposing order on the city without back-up from UK forces stationed at Basra air station and in Kuwait.
But a severe bout of violence would trigger a call for the fire-power of allies in the US-led coalition."
US troops to be on-call in Basra - Telegraph
The move, known in military jargon as "going PIC", which stands for Provincial Iraqi Control, paves the way for UK troop numbers in Iraq's second city to fall to 2,500 by the spring.
Maj Gen Graham Binns, the commanding officer of forces in south-east Iraq, said that the Iraqi army had been rated capable of imposing order on the city without back-up from UK forces stationed at Basra air station and in Kuwait.
But a severe bout of violence would trigger a call for the fire-power of allies in the US-led coalition."
US troops to be on-call in Basra - Telegraph