The top two Iraqi commanders in Basra, the men the British military had placed their confidence in when handing back control of the city last December, have been removed from their positions and recalled to Baghdad by the Government.

Lieutenant-General Mohan al-Furaiji and Major-General Abdul-Jalil Khalaf will return to take up "higher staff positions", said the Iraqi Ministry of Defence. Their departure comes less than a month after the Iraqi security forces launched a sudden and controversial offensive against Shia militants in Basra.

Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister, sent Lieutenant-General Furaiji to the southern port city last summer to oversee all security forces on a temporary basis. Similarly, Major-General Khalaf was dispatched to take charge of the corruption and militia-riddled police.

Both men were praised repeatedly by British commanders as a main reason why they were able to pull back their troops from the centre of Basra last September and hand over control of security to the Iraqi authorities three months later.

Frustrated at persistent violence in the oil-rich city, however, Mr Maliki launched the March 25 operation, with hastily-scrambled support from the US military.

The crackdown triggered fierce clashes with militia loyal to the Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, which spread to other southern cities and Baghdad. More than 1,300 police and soldiers refused to fight. They have since been sacked.

American commanders have criticised the hasty planning behind the campaign, which caught both the US and British military off guard. Mr Maliki gave his US allies barely more than a weekend's notice of the impending attack, while the British, who are based in the province, were informed only a day before.

Despite the problems, a Ministry of Interior spokesman said that the two departing Iraqi commanders would return to the Ministry of Defence in higher staff positions. Lieutenant-General Furaiji and Major-General Khalaf had been "rewarded for their successful mission against the criminals in Basra", he said.

A British military spokesman at Britain’s base outside Basra also thanked the two men for their “hard work and tireless determination”.

Major Tom Holloway said: “We pay tribute to the important contribution that Generals Mohan and Jalil have made with security in Basra since their appointment last summer.”

The pair will be replaced respectively by Major-General Mohammed Jawad Huwaidi and Major-General Adil Daham.

In ongoing offensives, coalition forces launched an air strike that killed four militants who fired at Iraqi troops in Basra this morning.

Major Holloway said the aircraft fired a missile at a group of five gunmen carrying rocket-propelled grenades, killing four and wounding one. A second missile was fired at their vehicle, destroying it. Iraqi police said that six people were killed and three wounded in the strike.

Iraqi forces, with embedded American advisors, have made scores of arrests in Basra since the campaign began and uncovered a number of weapons caches.

Earlier this week, Iraqi soldiers rescued British hostage Richard Butler, a photojournalist on assignment for the American network CBS News, from a house in Basra where he had been held captive for just under two months. They were tipped off by children in the neighbourhood.

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