UK army chief pleads for Iraq pull out

The chief of Britain's army says that the presence of British troops in Iraq is exacerbating the security situation on the ground and they should, therefore, be withdrawn soon. General Sir Richard Dannatt also said in an interview with the Daily Mail newspaper on Friday that Britain's Iraq venture was aggravating the security threat elsewhere in the world.

In unusually blunt comments for a serving senior officer, Dannatt told the Friday edition of the newspaper that the troops should "get ... out sometime soon because our presence exacerbates the security problems".

Britain, Washington's main ally in Iraq, has about 7,000 soldiers deployed, mainly in the south of the country.

The US-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein, then the Iraqi president, has come under heavy criticism, as the civilian death toll mounts and British and US troops are increasingly in the firing line.

Dannatt, who took over as chief of the general staff in August, said: "We are in a Muslim country and Muslims' views of foreigners in their country are quite clear. As a foreigner, you can be welcomed by being invited in a country, but we weren't invited certainly by those in Iraq at the time.

"The military campaign we fought in 2003 effectively kicked the door in. Whatever consent we may have had in the first place, may have turned to tolerance and has largely turned to intolerance. That is a fact. I don't say that the difficulties we are experiencing round the world are caused by our presence in Iraq, but undoubtedly our presence in Iraq exacerbates them."

Putting himself directly at odds with Tony Blair, the British prime minister, and George Bush, the US president, the general criticised the post-invasion planning by the US-led forces.

"I think history will show that the planning for what happened after the initial successful war fighting phase was poor, probably based more on optimism than sound planning.

"The original intention was that we put in place a liberal democracy that was an exemplar for the region, was pro-West and might have a beneficial effect on the balance within the Middle East. That was the hope, whether that was a sensible or naive hope history will judge. I don't think we are going to do that. I think we should aim for a lower ambition."

The ministry of defence declined to comment immediately on the general's comments. A spokesman at Blair's office was not immediately available to comment.

Meanwhile, in a snapshot of the daily chaos plaguing Iraq, gunmen stormed a television station in Baghdad on Thursday and shot dead 11 staff in the biggest attack yet on the media in the country.

Iraqi media organisations, funded by religious or political groups, are frequent targets for militant groups as attacks by Sunni Arab fighters and sectarian death squads continue to convulse the country, killing an estimated 100 people a day.