Iraq police block militia as UK troops quit centre

BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi police thwarted an attempt by Shi'ite militiamen to occupy a joint command centre in the southern city of Basra from which British troops withdrew overnight, a police spokesman said on Sunday.

Britain, which has been responsible for security in Basra since it joined the United States in invading Iraq in 2003, has begun withdrawing this year and is expected to pull its forces out of their last base inside the city within two weeks.

Basra police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Abdul-Kareem al-Zaidi said militiamen had tried to invade the provisional joint coordination centre (PJCC) that British troops had shared with the Iraqi army, possibly to ransack it.

The situation was resolved peacefully after a delegation from the militia held talks with officials, Zaidi said.

A spokesman for Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the holy city of Najaf, Ammar al-Saadi, said a group of Mehdi Army militiamen loyal to Sadr had gathered in front of the PJCC and chanted victory slogans before withdrawing peacefully.

The British military, which still has about 500 men at Basra Palace, its city centre base, said Iraqi security forces had not asked for help.

"We spoke to General Mohan and he assured us that the situation is under control. The PJCC is under the control of the Iraqi army," British military spokesman Major Mike Shearer said, referring to the Iraqi general in charge of security in Basra.

A successful invasion of the PJCC would have been deeply embarrassing for British forces, which are keen to show that the Iraqi security forces are improving and are close to taking full control of security in Basra province.

British bases in the southern provinces of Maysan and Muthanna were ransacked by Iraqis after the British handed them over to Iraqi security forces in 2006.