Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Military anger at delay to Iraq pull-out plan

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Military anger at delay to Iraq pull-out plan: "Plans to withdraw substantial numbers of British troops from Iraq next month have been abandoned after the explosion of violence in Basra on Monday night. The decision has dismayed military commanders, who are concerned about growing pressure on their soldiers.

'We are not planning a withdrawal,' a senior defence source said yesterday, referring to a plan to hand over control of two southern provinces to the Iraqis.

The fragile situation in the south of the country was dramatically exposed when Iraqi police arrested two undercover British SAS soldiers on Monday and handed them over to militiamen before they were rescued. The incident came after months of concern that local security forces in the region had been infiltrated by radicals.

Senior defence officials admitted yesterday that far from improving, the security situation in southern Iraq might well get worse over the next few months. They referred in particular to the Mahdi army, a militia headed by the radical Shia cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr."