LONDON, May 19 (UPI) -- The British Royal Navy ends its training mission in Iraq during the weekend leaving only a few embassy staffers behind, the British defense secretary said.
British forces helped their U.S. counterparts with the initial invasion in 2003. Most British forces left their bases in the southern port city of Basra in 2009 though the British Royal Navy stayed behind to help train Iraqi soldiers in defending their territorial waters and key oil installations.
British Defense Secretary Liam Fox was quoted by London's Independent newspaper as saying the Royal Navy helped transform their Iraqi counterparts.
"The Iraqi Navy has a key role to play in protecting Iraq's territorial waters and the oil infrastructure that is so vital to Iraq's economy, and I am proud of the role British forces have played in making it capable of doing that job," he added.
Only a few staff members will remain behind at the British Embassy in Baghdad. In all, 179 British soldiers lost their lives during the eight-year war in Iraq.
As of May 1, the Web site Antiwar.com indicates there were 4,452 American military casualties in Iraq since the 2003 invasion. The last of the U.S. soldiers stationed there are tentatively scheduled to leave at the end of December.
