The arrival of thousands of extra US Marines and soldiers in southern Afghanistan will not lead to an American takeover of Helmand where British troops are based, the head of the Army pledged yesterday.
“My view is that this will be a business partnership, not them and us,” General Sir David Richards, the Chief of the General Staff, told The Times. He denied that the influx into the south of 30,000 US troops in the surge announced by President Obama would present the British with “another Basra”.
After the last British troops withdrew from Basra in southern Iraq in September 2007, it took 27,000 Iraqi soldiers with 900 American military embedded with them, supported by US attack helicopters and bombers, to wrest control of the city from Shia extremist militia groups in an operation launched in March 2008.