|PIC1|With the five year anniversary of the start of the Iraq war just around the corner, the United Reformed Church (URC) has called for renewed urgency and vigour in efforts to end the occupation of Iraq by British and American forces.

The military action has had a "devastating" impact on the lives of the people in Iraq, said the URC on Monday, as well as for those with relatives serving in the coalition forces.

The URC staunchly opposed the invasion of Iraq in 2003, particularly in light of the decision by the US and UK Governments to go ahead without the proper backing of the UN. The URC continues to oppose continued military operations in Iraq, calling the decision to invade "ill-conceived".

Simon Loveitt, Convenor of the Church and Society Committee, said, "We opposed it then. We oppose it now.

"It was a foolhardy and immoral incursion which did not have our backing. Nor did it have the backing of millions of people of this country, who still carry a sense of outrage about it."

At a meeting on Sunday, the Church's Mission Council approved a statement highlighting the substantial human cost of the war.

|PIC2|More than a million Iraqis have been killed, more than four million have been displaced from their homes, and more than three thousand British and American troops have been killed.

The statement also flagged up the abuse that some servicewomen and men have faced on their return to the UK for serving in Iraq.

The statement calls for an understanding that "where conflict and tension abound, lasting peace and stability are more likely to emanate from a dismantling of structures that perpetrate injustice or division, than from violence or aggression".

The development of sustainable security for the people of the region is essential to ending the occupation of Iraq by British and American forces, the URC added.

The statement was released on the same day as a parliamentary committee predicted that the cost of Britain's military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan will double to more than £3 billion this year, a 94 per cent increase on last year.