http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041021/ap_on_re_mi_ea/britain_iraq_14<snip>
Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon told lawmakers that military chiefs had concluded the level of risk to British soldiers was acceptable. The soldiers are moving from the relatively peaceful south to a zone where Sunni insurgents have been carrying out daily attacks on U.S. troops and Iraqis.
An armored battlegroup of 850 soldiers from the First Battalion Black Watch — complete with medics, signalers and engineers — will be redeployed for a "limited and specific period of time, lasting weeks rather than months" to relieve U.S. troops, Hoon said.
He did not say when the redeployment would begin and refused to give further details of the "location, duration or specifics of the mission" for security reasons. He said only that they would "deploy to an area within MNF (West)" — the western sector of the multinational force.
"After careful evaluation, the chiefs of staff have advised me that U.K. forces are able to undertake the proposed operation, that there is a compelling military operational justification for doing so, and that it entails a militarily acceptable level of risk for U.K. forces," Hoon said in a statement to the House of Commons.
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