LONDON, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- U.S. strategists did not consult their British counterparts on disbanding the Iraqi army and removing Baath Party leaders from power, a London inquiry heard.
L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator of the transitional government of Iraq, removed around 5,000 high-ranking Baath officials from power and disbanded the Iraqi army shortly after Baghdad fell in 2003.
John Sawers, who served as the British special envoy to Baghdad during the war and now heads the British intelligence agency, said Washington ignored his pleas to reconsider Bremer's decision, the Times of London reports.
Bremer's decision is believed by some to have led to the insurgency that gripped post-invasion Iraq, pushing the country toward civil war.
Sawers said that while neither decision led directly to spiraling conflict, the move may have contributed to the level of violence in Iraq.
"I don't think it's credible to lay the roots of the insurgency on the decision to disband the army," he cautioned.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for an inquiry to examine the role London played in the Iraq war from the planning stages to withdrawal from the country earlier this year.
The inquiry will examine the legality of the war when it hears from Brown and his predecessor, Tony Blair, early in 2010.
