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| Blair: British Troops Not to 'Walk Away' from Iraq |
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British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Tuesday that British troops will not "walk away" from Iraq or Afghanistan until their job is complete. "If we walk away before the job is done from either of those two countries, we will leave a situation in which the very people we are fighting everywhere, including extremism in our own country, are heartened and emboldened and we can't afford that to happen." Blair said at his monthly press conference. "So we have got to see the job through," Blair added. "What we are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan is important. It's important for the security of our country, the security of the world," he said. As for the comments made by British Army Chief General Sir Richard Dannatt last week, saying that Britain should withdraw its troops from Iraq "sometime soon" as their continued presence "exacerbates the security problems," Blair said the general was not calling for the immediate withdrawal of British troops from Iraq. "Of course, it is the case that for some of those areas in Iraq, particularly where the Iraqi forces now want to take control of those areas, it is important that we don't overstay the time that we need to be there," said he. "But in no sense was he saying - and neither should anybody say - that we should get out of Iraq before the job is done," said Blair. Britain has 7,200 troops in southern Iraq patrolling an area around Basra, a bastion of Shiite militias. A total of 119 British troops have been killed in Iraq since the country joined the US-led invasion three years ago. (Xinhua News Agency October 18, 2006)
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