British forces in Iraq will undergo a "fundamental change of mission" at the beginning of next year, as troop numbers reduce, Prime Minister Gordon Brown told parliament Tuesday. "Just as last year we move from combat to overwatch, I would expect a further fundamental change of mission in the first months of 2009," he said in an update to lawmakers after his visit to Baghdad and Basra last weekend.
"We will continue to reduce the number of British troops in Iraq," he said, while insisting that all decisions will be based on advice from military commanders on the ground.
Some 4,100 British troops are based in Iraq, mainly at Basra Airport near the southern port city. Plans to reduce that number to about 2,500 earlier this year were put on hold after militia violence flared up. Brown gave no further details of the change in mission, but said military commanders on the ground expected control of the airport would be handed to the Iraqis "by the end of this year".
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