LONDON, Oct 21 (AFP) - Britain agreed Thursday to an unprecedented US request to redeploy 850 crack troops to a volatile area to the west of Baghdad, freeing up US soldiers for an expected assault on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.
"The government has decided that we should accept the US request for assistance," Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon told parliament, adding that the deployment would be "limited in scope, time and space".
The redeployment marks the first time since the March 2003 invasion that British troops have left southern Iraq for US-controlled areas, where they are liable to come under hostile fire.
Britain has about 8,500 troops in the relatively tame south, mostly around Basra, compared to 138,000 US troops in the centre and north.
Hoon said the 850 troops would be drawn predominantly from Scotland's Black Watch regiment, currently in southern Iraq, to relieve a US unit for other tasks, with some anticipating an assault on Falluja, west of Baghdad.
The Black Watch, an armoured infantry battalion equipped with Warrior armoured troop carriers, contains some of Britain's most battle-hardened troops which helped last year in the overthrow of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
The 850-strong force contains hundreds of specialists from other units, including experts in reconnaissance, engineering, logistics, and communications.
"They are not going to go for a few days," Major General Robin Brims, Deputy Chief of Joint Operations, told journalists at the Ministry of Defence in London.
"We've got the order," he said. "Now we've got to make the necessary arrangements."
The Black Watch battalion had beeen on reserve for British commanders in the south and its tour will now be extended, while the first battalion of the Scots Guards regiment will replace in the south them as intended.
British troops operating in the US zone will remain under the overall command of Britain's most senior officer in Iraq, Major General Bill Rollo, but the US Marine Corps will control their day-to-day tactical operations.
This means that if the US military leadership want to change the battlegroup's mission or tasks, they will have to obtain Rollo's agreement.
They will continue to use the British rules of engagements.
Chief of Defence Staff General Sir Michael Walker, Britain most senior military officer, said that the redeployment was subject to "a 30-day limit", although he left open the possibility of an extension.
If troops were still needed in the area after that time, the Black Watch would not necessarily be replaced by British troops, although British commanders have been drawing up contingency plans in case they need to send another battalion to replace them.
Thursday's announcement ended nearly a week of speculation that Blair would consent to a Pentagon plea for British troops to "backfill" for US forces ahead of an expected US assault on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.
Hoon insisted that the decision was unrelated to US President George W. Bush's fight to win a second term in the White House in his November 2 election showdown with Democratic challenger John Kerry.
"I emphasize again that this was a military request," he said, "and has been considered and accepted on operational grounds after a thorough military evaluation by the (British) chiefs of staff."
"This deployment is a vital part of the process of creating the right conditions for the Iraqi elections to take place in January," he said.
It is not clear exactly where the British troops will be based although it will be somewhere in Multi-National Force (West), the operational sector that lies in the centre of Iraq to the west of Baghdad.
There were frequent shouts of protest during the exchanges that followed Hoon's statement.
Opposition Conservative spokesman for defence Nicholas Soames said he supported the redeployment as "a necessary military contribution" to the task of ensuring peace in Iraq in the run-up to January's elections.
But he said ministers would be relieved Hoon had ended "the unnecessary and unacceptable confusion of the last few days".
Hoon denied newspaper reports claiming Britain planned to send a further 1,300 soldiers to Iraq.
10/21/2004 16:55 GMT - AFP