Washington intends to urge Britain to launch a "surge" in Basra to combat growing violence in the southern Iraqi region, the Sunday Mirror newspaper reported. Britain, which has some 4,100 soldiers in Iraq, transferred control to Iraqi forces late last year but it could now be asked to step up its role again amid top-level concern about the situation, the paper added.
Sunday Mirror quoted an unnamed senior US military source saying: "Three big militias are currently engaged in a particularly bloody battle in southern Iraq. "US and Iraqi forces are involved in a huge operation to attack an Al-Qaeda stronghold in Mosul.
"But after that, the plan is to turn the coalition's attention on to Basra and we will be urging the British to surge into the city. "If they do not have enough troops, then they will be offered US Marines to help out.
"The feeling is that if southern Iraq is hugely unstable, it will affect the success of the surge in the north and destabilise the whole country."
The source added: "The proposal to go back into Basra is being examined at the highest level in Baghdad."
But unnamed senior British civil service sources told the Sunday Mirror that London would be highly reluctant to go back into Basra because of pressure at home to pull forces out. "We do not have enough troops for a surge ourselves. The hope is that we can train enough Iraqi army recruits in the next year to cope with the inter-tribal warfare going on in Basra," one source quoted by the paper said.
