"Far called, our Army melts away ....."

The Queens Royal Hussars were stationed at Camp Abu Naji near Amara, 200 miles southeast of Baghdad, the capital of Maysan province which also has a large presence of Mehdi Army militia fighters loyal to radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.That changed on Thursday.

The base has been a target for frequent ( and of late, nightly) mortar and rocket barrages since being set up in 2003.

"We are repositioning our forces to focus on border areas and deal with reports of smuggling of weapons and improvised explosive devices from across the border," British military spokesman Major Charlie Burbridge told Reuters withn a stiff upper lip.

"We are going to do what the Long Range Desert Group did in North Africa. We will live in the desert. We will be mobile and able to strike when we want. We will have surprise on our side," he said.

Those with a long memory will remember the wonderful "human interest" tale in February (15/2/06) of Ben the regimental pet goat (see MOD pic) who "chooses to spend most of his time around the battlegroup HQ where the current regiment, the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, dote on him and even chose to name him after their commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Ben Edwards."

"Ben has had a wide and varied social life, having met all distinguished visitors to the base, including Ibrahim Al Jaafari, the Iraqi Prime Minister and HRH The Duke of Kent."

A story the MOD were keen to promote on their official propaganda news.

While dismissing suggestions the British had been forced out of Amara, Major Charlie Burbridge acknowledged to Reuters that nightly mortar attacks had been one reason for the decision to withdraw, the second being that a static base did not fit with the new operation. An explanation for the sudden departure of the whole base, with no prior indication to the Iraqi Government.

There is more to the tale as told by Chris Floyd of Truthout.

"British forces evacuated the military headquarters without coordination with the Iraqi forces," Dhaffar Jabbar, spokesman for the Maysan governor, told Reuters on Thursday, as looters began moving into the camp in the wake of the British withdrawal. A unit of Iraqi government troops mutinied when told to keep order at the base - and instead attacked a military post of their own army. By Friday, the locals had torn the place to pieces, carting away more than $500,000 worth of equipment and fixtures that the British had left behind. After that initial, ineffectual show of force, the Iraqi "authorities" stepped aside and watched helplessly as the looters taunted them and cheered the "great victory" over the Western invaders.

The largely notional - if not fictional - power of the Baghdad central government simply vanished while the forces of hardline cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, which already controls the local government, stepped forward to proclaim its triumph and guide the victory celebrations in the nearby provincial capital, Amarah. "This is the first city that has kicked out the occupier!" blared Sadr-supplied loudspeakers to streets filled with revelers, as the Washington Post noted in a solid - but deeply buried - story on the retreat.


The New Jersey Star Ledger has a story from AP which can be found syndicated across the US (simply Google "Abu Naji" in Google News) - a story incidentally that seems to have been "overlooked" by the UK Press.

British vacate a base and Iraqis start looting
Coalition forces unable to stop onslaught - Saturday, August 26, 2006

BY HAIDAR HANI ASSOCIATED PRESS AMARAH, Iraq -- Some of the men were armed; others had their faces covered. They ransacked Camp Abu Naji in southern Iraq, even making off with stuff that was nailed down.

The scores of looters ripped corrugated metal from roofs, hauled off pipes, doors and window frames and loaded trucks with wooden planks.

A day after British troops vacated the base, the Iraqis stripped it yesterday of virtually everything removable, an indication of possible future trouble for U.S.-led coalition forces hoping to hand over security gradually to the Iraqi government.

"The British forces left Abu Naji and the locals started looting everything," 1st Lt. Rifaat Taha Yaseen of the Iraqi Army's 10th Division told Associated Press Television News. "They took everything from the buildings."

The plundering was likely to embarrass the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has said that Iraqi army and police plan to take over security for all of Iraq's provinces within the next 18 months.

.... On Thursday, Iraqi authorities had complained the British withdrawal had caught them unaware.

"British forces evacuated the military headquarters without coordination with the Iraqi forces," Jabbar said Thursday.

Not quite the orderly handover to the Iraqi Government forces peddled so assiduously by HMG.

To those unfamiliar with Rudyard Kipling the headline reflects "Recessional" ... Far called our Navies melt away, on Dune and headland sinks the fire ..."

The fate of Ben goes undocumented - no doubt some lucky Iraqi's lunch. One doubts his utility in Long Range desert warfare which the Queens Royal Hussars are committed to along their 300 mile sector of the Iraq/Iran border, having thrown in their hand in training the replacement Iraqi forces.

The assualt on the Green Zone looks daily more likely.