COALITION commanders are planning to send a "surge" of extra British troops to Iraq before the elections in January, Britain's senior general in the country said yesterday. One or two extra battalions — or up to 1,300 men — could be sent under contingency plans being drawn up by military chiefs. In his final interview after six months as the second-in-command of the US-led Multi- national Force, Lieutenant-General John McColl told The Times that the talks between British and American commanders on reinforcements were still at the stage of contingency planning and that no numbers had been mentioned.
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