British troops seek to win over locals in Basra

BASRA, Iraq, Sep 27 (Reuters) British forces in southern Iraq launched a major campaign today to win the trust of local people as part of their plan to eventually turn over control of the country's second biggest city to Iraqis.

Operation Sinbad will involve about 1,000 British troops, 2,000 Iraqi army troops and scores of Iraqi contractors, painting schools, fixing power cables and improving water systems, British spokesman Major Charlie Burbridge said.

At the Uruba secondary school, an Iraqi soldier was fixing a window while a British soldier in floppy hats painted a gate.

Outside, a British soldier sewed a net on for a soccer goal with needle and threat.

The mainly-Shi'ite British-patrolled southern sector of Iraq has seen more progress than other parts of the country in handing over control to Iraqis and sending international forces home.

Since July, Britain has handed over control of two provinces to Iraqis and withdrawn most of its troops from a third.

Japanese and Italian contingents under British command are being withdrawn.

But Basra has remained dangerous, with Shi'ite factions battling each other for control, and British troops occasionally caught in the middle. Britain still has about 7,200 troops in southern Iraq, mostly in and around Basra.

Burbridge said the hearts and minds campaign was only half the operation; the other half would be a new push to sort out Basra's police force by embedding teams of royal military policemen in Basra police stations.

''We are focusing on rehabilitating and culling if necessary the Iraqi police force,'' he said. The Iraqi police force in sourthern Iraq, in particular Basra, has been infiltrated by militia.... What we will be left with is a smaller, more capable Iraqi police force at the end.'' Operation Sinbad, named after the sailor from the city immortalised in Arab literature, will run until early 2007, Burbridge said, adding that Britain hopes it will be closer to its goal of turning over the city to Iraqi control by then.

REUTERS AB RK1955