| Title | British troops will still be in Iraq on New Year's Day 2005 | |
| Date | Friday January 02, @07:43AM | |
| Author | ewing2001 | |
| Topic | Bush | |
| from the BBC dept. | ||
BBC -Friday, 2 January, 2004
British troops have another year of patrols to look forward to British troops will still be in Iraq on New Year's Day 2005, Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon has said.
But Mr Hoon said their role would change during 2004 from occupying Iraq to helping new Iraqi bodies bring stability to the country.
He admitted that the US-led invasion of the Gulf state had encouraged an influx of foreign terrorists.
But he said the long-term benefits of toppling Saddam Hussein outweighed the short-term problems.
Asked on BBC Radio 4's The World at One how many troops would be in Iraq next year, Mr Hoon replied: "I don't want to speculate precisely about numbers. I would expect to see the role of British forces change, subtly perhaps.
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printed from GlobalFreePress, British troops will still be in Iraq on New Year's Day 2005 on 2004-12-11 03:30:32