Financial Times: British forces withdrawal from Iraq expected

The British daily Financial Times disclosed on Tuesday that the British defense office has prepared a plan to withdraw a great part of its forces from Iraq.

The paper explained that the plan states a plan to implement the first phase of the withdrawal next Autumn by handing over security arrangements to the Iraqi forces in two of the governorates of the south where some 8000 British soldiers are deployed.

However, a spokesman for the British defense office said that the British forces will continue to remain in Iraq, as far as this is necessary.