"Five years on and Iraq is still in chaos" - Farron

10.56.37am GMT Thu 20th Mar 2008

Local MP Tim Farron has criticised the Government ahead of the five-year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq by coalition forces in March 2003 over the increasingly perilous humanitarian situation in the country. According to recent estimates, as many as 150,000 civilians were killed in the first three years of the war alone and there are signs at present that the provision of clean water and working sewage systems is getting more scarce.

International organisations such as Amnesty have also expressed concerns about the number of people currently being held by Multinational and Iraqi forces, suggesting there may be as many as 60,000 being detained.

Tim Farron said:

"Ahead of the election that never was last autumn, Gordon Brown promised that troops would begin to be withdrawn in the spring, there is absolutely no sign of this happening.

"The humanitarian situation in Iraq appears to be worsening, there is a case for withdrawing our combat troops immediately and focussing more on the humanitarian operations."