Basra was a city divided yesterday after the withdrawal of British troops left some residents hailing the departure of “the occupiers” and others fearing for their safety if Iraqi security forces were unable to control rival militias.

The withdrawal was the top story on all the Iraqi television stations until it was superseded by President Bush’s arrival in Anbar province in the afternoon. Pictures showed Iraqi soldiers hoisting the black, white and red national flag above the palace complex, and Iraqi guards taking up positions outside.

The nocturnal withdrawal took residents by surprise. They awoke to find Iraqi troops and police flooding the dusty, rubbish-strewn streets and manning checkpoints in a determined effort to show that the Iraqi security forces could maintain order.

Major-General Mohan al-Firaji, commander of Iraqi security operations in Basra, set the tone with an early-morning press conference in which he declared: “We have control of the palace, and the Army has orders to allow no one inside until the Prime Minister decides what to do with it.” He announced the British departure hours before it was confirmed by the Ministry of Defence in London.

Abu Ahmad, 36, an aide to Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical antiAmerican Shia cleric, toldThe Times: “This victory happened with the help of Allah and all those who gave their lives to achieve this goal, the nightly attacks on the palace with mortars and shells, under Moqtada’s leadership.”

Nine members of The 4th Rifles battle group based in the palace have been killed and 40 wounded since May 21.

Some residents hailed the departure of the foreign troops who had occupied their city since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. “The withdrawal of British Forces was a success for the Mahdi Army and a victory for the people of Basra,” Zuher Abid Ali, 41, an engineer, said. “We’re happy to be rid of the British. They were harassing us in the streets and raided our houses and arrested our sons,” Sadoun Hami, an army officer, said.

Inhabitants who live close to the palace also rejoiced because there was no longer the danger of their homes being hit by stray shells and mortars. “I am very happy. Now I will be able to go back to my house,” said Sabah Lateef Muhasen, 36, a shopkeeper who had been forced to move his family elsewhere.

But some feared that without the British presence Basra’s militias – the al-Mahdi Army, the Badr Brigade and the Fadela – would run amok. The three have waged vicious campaigns of killing, kidnapping and extortion as they have battled for control of the city on the Shatt al-Arab waterway. The police force is infested with al-Mahdi Army militiamen, and it will be weeks before the Iraqi Army is up to strength in the city.

Kathum Jawad, 34, a doctor, said: “The British withdrawal with all the militias and corrupt police in Basra is very dangerous for the city. We should have more trust in the Iraqi security forces before the British left. I can’t feel safe any more and I think the militias will start looting and kidnapping and killing without any forces to stop them.”

A leading ally of Hojatoleslam al-Sadr claimed that militiamen loyal to the cleric drove the military from Basra. “The withdrawal is an historic victory for the Sadrists,” Nasar al-Rubaie, leader of the Sadrist bloc in the Iraqi parliament, told The Times.

Mr Rubaie also insisted that security in the violent, militia-infested city would improve, not deteriorate, now the British had gone. “Everybody who was betting that the withdrawal of the occupying forces would mean a worse security situation will see the city’s security improve. The occupation was stimulating terrorism,” he argued.

The British Government has repeatedly denied that its troops have been “defeated”, and Gordon Brown rejected suggestions yesterday that they had retreated under fire. The withdrawal was a “preplanned and organised move,” he said. British troops would continue to train their Iraqi counterparts, and to “reintervene in certain circumstances”.

Last week Hojatoleslam al-Sadr ordered his army to suspend activities for six months, a move welcomed by British and American military leaders.

Secret talks between Iraqi Sunni and Shia groups ended yesterday with an agreement on a road map to peace, after they heard from Martin McGuinness about making peace in Northern Ireland (David Sharrock writes). The former chief of staff of the Provisional IRA, who is now Deputy First Minister in Northern Ireland’s power-sharing executive, was one of 30 participants at the four-day seminar in Finland.

Organisers said that the militant groups agreed to talk about “resolving political disputes through nonviolence and democracy”.

Representatives of Moqtada al-Sadr, Adnan al-Dulaimi, the leader of the largest Sunni Arab political group, and Humam Hammoudi, the Shia chairman of the Iraqi parliament’s foreign affairs committee, are reported to have attended the seminar.

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