Britain currently has enough troops in Iraq to carry out its mission there, Prime Minister Tony Blair's special representative for the occupied country said Tuesday."We probably have as many forces as we want," Jeremy Greenstock, who was until recently Britain's ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters here. "It will go up and down as the task requires."
Britain last week left open the door to send even more troops to Iraq as Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said at least another 1,200 troops would be sent in the coming weeks, boosting its military presence there to more than 11,000.
Hoon had ordered a review of the troop levels needed to support British operations in Iraq amid persistent attacks against US and British occupation forces.
"We anticipate additional tasks in the near future which will require military resources, in particular the provision of military support to critical infrastructure work," he said on September 8.
Eleven British soldiers have been killed in attacks in Iraq since US President George W. Bush declared on May 1 that major combat operations in the war to overthrow Saddam Hussein were over.
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