debkafile Reports: Three car bombs kill 40 in southern Iraqi Shiite town of Amarah two days after British PM announces troop drawdown

The blasts went off in quick succession Wednesday, Dec. 12, in Amarah in the Shiite South, where British troops handed security over to Iraqi forces in April. The town is the capital of Maysan province, which borders Iran. Monday, Dec. 10, Gordon Brown on a visit to Basra said: “The war in Iraq is over.” He said that all British troops will be home by the spring of 2008. Questions were put to him in parliament Wednesday, Dec. 12, on the announcement that British forces will hand Basra province to Iraqi control on Dec. 16.
debkafile quotes US strategists and officers as remarking that Brown’s announcement of a drawdown was really signaling the British army’s flight from Iraq after being defeated in its effort to secure southern Iraq against Shiite militias.