Britain concluded its naval training mission in Iraq yesterday, more than eight years after it contributed the second largest contingent of troops to the US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.

Despite having pulled out the vast majority of its troops in mid-2009, Britain’s Royal Navy has continued to train Iraqi personnel to defend their territorial waters and offshore oil installations. “Their contribution was most appreciated and valuable,” Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said. “They have given many sacrifices to stabilise (Iraq) and they were the second-largest force of the coalition.

“Mistakes were made, not only by them, but by all of us,” Mr Zebari added, declining to give specific details.

“But that doesn’t diminish their valuable contribution to training, capacity building and, recently, for the protection of our oil ports at the tip of the Gulf.”