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BREAKING NEWS
JAIL BREAK –
UK USE TANKS TO ENTER POLICE COMPOUND
BBC News – UK soldiers ‘storm’ Basra prison
Yahoo News: Brits Use Tanks in Jailbreak.
Contrary statement from Governor of Basra ::
“Act of barbaric aggression”.
“UK Soldiers Have Been Released” Min of Defence
The official statement from the British Ministery of Defence (MoD) has just been read on BBC News:
After negotiations with local authorities …
A wall may have been knocked down …
Update [2005-9-21 10:59:51 by Oui]:
BAGHDAD, Iraq Sept. 21 — About 500 civilians and policemen rallied today in Basra and denounced “British aggression” following London’s decision to use force to free two of its soldiers being held by Iraqi police.
The demonstrators in Basra, which included police and civilians waving pistols and AK47s, shouted “No to occupation!” and carried banners condemning “British aggression and demanding the freed soldiers be tried in an Iraqi court as “terrorists.”
«« click on pic for more photos
An Iraqi policemen holds up a pistol during a protest in Basra, Iraq, in which about 500 people demanded an apology for attack by British forces on the jail were two British nationals were captive. AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani
Clashes between British forces and Iraqi police have killed five civilians, including two who died of their injuries Wednesday in a hospital.
Interior Minister Bayan Jabr disputed the British version of events. He told the BBC the two soldiers never left police custody or the jail, were not handed to militants, and that the British army acted on a “rumor” when it stormed the jail.
After British armored vehicles stormed the jail to free two commandos, National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie said the operation was “a violation of Iraqi sovereignty.”
More to follow below the fold »»
Two British citizens detained by Iraqi police sit in a police lockup in the southern port city of Basra. REUTERS/Atef Hassan
BAGHDAD (AFP) 10 minutes ago – Iraqi police have detained two British soldiers in the southern port city of Basra, following a shooting incident.
One Basra policeman said the two men who were detained were undercover soldiers, wearing Arab costume, and carrying explosives, allegedly fired at a police patrol before being forced to stop.
“We can confirm that the Iraqi authorities are holding two UK service personnel and we are liaising with the Iraqi authorities on this matter,” a British military spokesman told AFP by telephone from Basra.
A combo shows two British soldiers detained by Iraqi police sitting in a police station in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. Iraqi police have detained two British soldiers in the southern town of Basra, a British military spokesman said. British troops used force to gain the release of two of their comrades arrested earlier in the day by Iraqi police, a source at the Iraqi defense ministry told AFP. AFP/Essam al-Sudani
British forces on Monday surrounded a police station in the centre of Basra after Iraqi police refused to release the two men, an AFP photographer at the scene said Monday.
«« click on pic to enlarge
Iraqi protesters throw stones at British soldiers during clashes in Basra. Iraqi police have detained two British soldiers in the southern port city of Basra, following a shooting incident. AFP/Essam Al-Sudani
The British forces were themselves surrounded by demonstrators, who threw stones; and British soldiers fired warning shots, he said. Demonstrators then set fire to two British tanks. British soldiers jumped from the tanks and withdrew without returning fire.
It was not immediately known if there were any injuries.
VIOLENCE ERUPTS IN BASRA
«« click on pic for more images
Iraqis throw stones during clashes with British forces, seen in background, in Basra, 550 km (340 miles) southeast of Baghdad. In Basra, British forces and demonstrators exchanged gunfire in the southern city of Basra after two British men were arrested for allegedly shooting at local security forces, killing one policeman and wounding another, authorities and witnesses said today. AP Photo / Nabil al-Jurani
There is some infiltration of local government in Basra – and rest of Southern Iraq – by Muqtada al Sadr forces.
The UK MoD does speak of SCIRI police handing over the two UK agents to local militants. This was the moment the decision was made, to take the UK men out by force.
BBC News – Car bomb attack kills 16 in Basra
Although focused on the tragedy and thousands of American lives lost on Gulf Coast, the Iraq War has worsened this week in the region of Basra.
The explosion took place on Wednesday evening outside a restaurant near the city centre which was packed with members of the Iraqi security forces. It was the worst car bombing in Basra since the US-led invasion in 2003.
The attack follows the killing of four US security guards and two British soldiers in separate incidents near Basra earlier this week.
Virginia-based security guards die in attack on convoy. A second bomb explodes on busy street.
BASRA Sept. 8, 2005 — Two bomb blasts shook the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Wednesday, killing at least 17 people, including four American security contractors traveling in a U.S. diplomatic convoy.
The first attack came in the morning, when a makeshift bomb was detonated as the U.S. convoy was traveling in the city, according to a statement by U.S. Embassy spokesman Peter Mitchell in Baghdad.
An armed Westerner and Iraqi policemen and soldiers secure the scene after a convoy was hit by a roadside bomb in the southern Iraq city of Basra. A car bomb shattered the relative peace of the southern Iraqi city of Basra after dark on Wednesday, killing 12 people and wounding 22 in a district packed with restaurants and a market, hospital sources said. A Reuters journalist saw at least five bodies at a local hospital. Atef Hassan/Reuters
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British Forces Surrounded a Police Station in the Center of Basra
BAGHDAD (AFP) 1 hour ago – Iraqi police have detained two British soldiers in the southern port city of Basra, following a shooting incident.
One Basra policeman said the two men who were detained were undercover soldiers, wearing Arab costume, and carrying explosives, allegedly fired at a police patrol before being forced to stop.
“We can confirm that the Iraqi authorities are holding two UK service personnel and we are liaising with the Iraqi authorities on this matter,” a British military spokesman told AFP by telephone from Basra.
British forces on Monday surrounded a police station in the centre of Basra after Iraqi police refused to release the two men, an AFP photographer at the scene said Monday.
A British citizen detained byIraqi police sits in a police
lockup in the southern port
city of Basra. REUTERS/Atef Hassan
● Iraqi working for NYT found shot dead in Basra
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The following story- or lack of story- has got me wondering. Do you, or anyone else, know anything about it?
“Iran ‘supplies infra-red bombs’ that kill British troops in Iraq
By Toby Harnden, Chief Foreign Correspondent
(Filed: 21/08/2005)
This story has been temporarily suspended.”
http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/08/21/wiran21.xml
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Check with Google :: infra red bombs.
British soldiers in Iraq are being killed by advanced “infra-red” bombs supplied by Iran that defeat jamming equipment, according to military intelligence officials.
The “passive infra-red” devices, whose use in Iraq is revealed for the first time by The Sunday Telegraph, are detonated when the beam is broken, as when an intruder triggers a burglar alarm.
They were used by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group against Israel in Lebanon from 1995.
A radio signal is used to arm the bomb, as a target vehicle approaches. The next object is to break the infra-red beam – the target vehicle – detonates the device.
Coalition officials see the disturbing development as a key part of an aggressive new campaign by Teheran to drive coalition forces out of Iraq so that an Islamic theocracy can be established.
American and British intelligence officials believe that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is training, supplying and funding part of Iraq’s insurgent Shia network and that its activities have been stepped up since the spring.
Links between Shia and Sunni Muslim groups, usually via trading by criminal arms dealers, means that expertise quickly spreads across Iraq.
“These guys have picked up in two years what it took the IRA a quarter-century to learn,” said an Army bomb disposal officer in Iraq.
Four British soldiers are believed to have been killed by infra-red devices made in the town of Majar-al-Kabir. The bombmaker, in his early forties, was one of the agitators behind the mob killing of six Red Caps there in June, 2003. The man, whose name is known by this newspaper but has not been published for security reasons, has connections to Iran, and has reportedly been seen with agents from Teheran. His arrest has been ordered, and two of his lieutenants were detained in June.
After the arrests, however, three soldiers from the Staffordshire Regiment were killed when their armoured Land Rover was blown up by a roadside bomb in al-Amara, last month as they were lured into a trap.
Second Lt Richard Shearer, Pte Leon Spicer and Pte Phillip Hewett died instantly as they investigated gunfire.
[Bold face emphasis is mine – Oui]
This is bs. Sounds like a propaganda story, created in the warped minds of NeoCons, Chalabis, DoD special ops or Likud fanatics. Just check where this story has spread!
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Thanks very much. Strange I didn’t google it myself!
The barrage of lies and deceptions about Iran is about to go into full-tilt mode now after Ahmadinejad’s speech at the UN. (Text of speech here.
The NYTand WaPo have already started the spin in the (supposedly respectable), so-called “liberal” media. (I haven’t even read the wingnut media on this recently. I need to take a break from monitoring them every so often.)
I’m sure the corporate media moguls would like nothing more than a “new” war to help them grow their bottom line. With this in mind I suspect their reporting will be every bit as flawed and false and irresponsible as it was in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.
The UN website seems to be having trouble so the link to the text of Ahmadinejad’s speech is not working right now. I did save the whole thing on my computer so if the link is permanetly kaput I can paste the whole thing in if anyone’s interested. Just let me know.
I have been keeping up with the iranian stanoff. I have the highlights on my site of Amindinejah’s speech to the General Assembly. Sad to say but the position of the Iranians makes much more sense (logically and legally) than the western position. Scott Ritter questioned the true intentions of the American support for “negotiations”. I recommend that anyone interested in the situation with Iran read his article.
I don’t trust the Iranian government any more than I trust the Bush regime, but, in all respects Iran’s actions conform to the law and to the rules of the NPT.
It is the US who has violated almost every aspect of the NPT, including recently agreeing to supply India with nuclear technology.
The British Army has broken into the central jail in Bassra, in Southern Iraq, with tanks to free to British commandos who were arrested and accused of firing on Iraqi police. More than 130 ordinary prisoners were also freed in the mayhem. The update with the prison breakout is here.
Why are British soldiers firing on Iraqi police? Why can’t the British use legal channels to get them out of jail? So much for being guests of the Iraqi government. What the hell is going on over there?
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After negotiations with local authorities …
A wall may have been knocked down …
Contrary statement from Governor of Basra ::
“Act of barbaric aggression”.
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Perhaps the Minister of Defense didn’t notice that those negotiations involved British soldiers clothes on fire leaping out of their tanks (per a Reuters photo).
A wall may have been knocked down . . . remind me not to send Spiderman on any more negotiation missions, bad for the infrastructure.
I’m sure that the local authorities just figured, what the hell, maybe this jail biz is a bad idea, lets release 150 prisoners through a hole in the wall while we’re at it. I never did like the doorway anyway and this is a negotiation.
A wall may have been knocked down. Hmmph.
Then again it might just have fallen of its own accord. You know, because it’s clumsy.
There is very much a power struggle in Basra that has simply sidestepped the British occupants.
According to reports in the Italian press by the superb Giuliana Sgrena for il Manifesto, primary responsability for violence there is the militia of Muqtada al Sadr, the Jaish al Mahdi. Al Sadr actually controls the city through the splinter faction, Fathela, which won the local elections last January and presently supports the central government. Muqtada also controls, or heavily conditions, the oil business in Basra (60% of the national production) through his syndicate, the Union of Oil Workers. The Jaish al Mahdi is practically a parallel government. It has its own prison in Tuwesa, and the local police is heavily infiltrated by its militants who needn’t envy the Latin American death squads of the 70’s and 80’s.
Another major actor in Basra is the brigade “al Badr” whose strongman, Abdelaziz al Hakim, has close ties with Khamenei in Iran. Muqtada is closely linked to the religious reactionary, Khadum al Hairi, in Qom, Iran.
Civic workers and reporters are targeted in Basra. Fahker Haider, a stringer for NYT was found executed this morning (September 19th). Steve Vincent was brutally murdered at the beginning of August. He was investigating cases of massive corruption at the time of his death. Both were executed by men dressed as local cops.
Whatever is going on in Basra, no witnesses are allowed.
An aide to Al-Sadr was arrested earlier this week and I believe a few Brits have been killed in Basra recently but news in the media has been hush hush (maybe because of Katrina or maybe because of “National Security”).
Also, I am no expert but should are governments allowed to break down jail cells of other governments? Seems odd that a sovreign nation would allow such a thing.
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Unbelievable! Just listened to BBC World radio on breaking news story, about jail break by UK forces in Basra.
MoD spokesman tries to downplay effects with local authority. Mentions the possibility these two UK men were part of Special Ops unit, investigating the use by Al Sadr’s men of sophisticated devices used for bombs. These devices were provided through Iran.
Unbelievable spin on undercover operations by UK forces – illegal activities?
Negroponte hit squad – see REUTERS warning not to use the photos of these UK men.
As soon as the photos have been spread on the Internet, there is no way one can undo this process.
Let the troops come HOME.
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Lies upon more lies. The war machine is cranking up again!
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The father of Pakistan’s Nuclear Research and Bomb ::
Nuclear Spy AQ Khan –
CIA/America Refused Arrest in 1975 & 1985
Who exported nukes to North Korea?
Pakistan confesses but shifts the blame on AQ Khan’s network
US-Pakistan relations in a major crisis over capturing Bin Laden
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Musharaff is like the whore who whispers in your ear “I love you” while lifting your wallet out of your pocket.
In addition he’s a ruthless military dictator, rape supporter and protector of the biggest proliferator of nuclear WMD in history.
Most of his regime’s supporting cast of generals and intel operatives are Al Qaeda and Taliban supporters.
Contrary to what the “India Daily” article suggests, I don’t think the US wants to apprehend bin Laden. He’s much more useful to the Bush regime on the loose, as a boogeyman to invoke whenever necessary to ratchet up the fear quotient in the American public.
Nothing good will ever come of our dealings with Pakistan.
I read also that the former British commander from Basra is doing a good Rummy imitation by downplaying what happened by saying the unrest is no more than a ‘busy night in Belfast’..yeah sure that ought to make everyone feel better. He also said it’s not as bad as Bagdad..well whoop-de-do, that’s not saying a hell of a lot is it?
Who knows what the real story is exactly but we can be sure we’re not getting it..maybe bits and pieces we can try and tie together is all. Needless to say the clusterfuck has grown to monumental proportions with no end in sight for the Iraqi people.
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A reader @dKos referred to article in Il Manifesto as a crock.
“Council, police and the governor are SCIRI-controlled as is the Interior Ministry in Baghdad.”
A number of references I cannot investigate: Fathela, Khadem al Hairi, Tuwesa prison and oil syndicate.
A Abdul Aziz al Hakim is referenced in eulogy spoken by Paul Wolfowitz, at funeral of Ayatollah Al-Hakim in August 2003. I don’t know whether this person is identical to your Il Manifesto article.
His untimely death deprived Iraq of an important leader at a time when men like him are badly needed. We thank God that his brother Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim, the last surviving brother, is alive and with us; leads SCIRI in playing an important role on the Iraqi Governing Council.
And I salute him, Dr. Chalabi, and Mr. Pachachi, and Mr. al-Jafari and Mr. Barham Sali and all of the members of the Governing Council, who are risking their lives today in the cause of a free Iraq.
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I have not been able to find the dKos link you mention. DKos is too slow at the moment and any search attempt crashes.
However, the quote in no ways contradicts the testimony of Yasser Qassim, a Basra journalist interviewed by Sgrena during the annual peace meeting in Assisi (link in my previous comment above.) The article does discuss the SCIRI and its present role in Iraq, its past dependance on Iran. The Badr militia is the military branch of the SCIRI.
There are constant clashes in and around Basra between the pro-coalition Badr forces and Sadr’s al-Mahdi Army. My impression is that it’s a mob war over money and territory. Religion and politics is, as most everywhere in the world, a thin veneer for the business of scoundrels.
The British have avoided intervening until the past few days- and then you get what’s now happening.
It appears that Sadr’s strategy is to win the poor and the workers to his cause, a populist demagogic approach. And he has been very successful at it. It’s no secret that many Basra police are Sadr supporters and moonlight for Sadr’s brand of summary justice. Sadr’s fundamentalist, rightwing terrorism is flourishing in a vacuum. Hell, he considers the Iranians too liberal for his tastes.
As far as Sadr’s influence over the Basr workers’ unions, that’s what Qassim reports. We’ll just have to take it as the sort of testimony that filters out of Basr. It appears quite feasible. Sadr has menaced to block oil production in Iraq in the past, and his threats have been taken seriously. So give me a hat tip for mentioning it.
The ferocious execution of reporters in Basra may point to larger scenario. Steve Vincent was reporting cases of vast corruption for the Christian Science Monitor when he was executed. Any faction may have wanted him out of the way.
“Fathela” is the Italian transliteration for “Virtue.” It often appears in English as “Fadhila.” It wrested power in the provincial council from the once-dominant SCIRI. Although in terms of corruption the two religious parties are indistinguishable despite Fadhila’s winning anti-corruption campaign. Qassim implies that Fadhila is a Sadr political front.
As for that crook of beer, I’ll have mine room temperature.
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Booman comments
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Ah yes bushie, let’s play War, cause this all just sounds so noble doesn’t it.
Why on earth would two UC Brit SpecOps guys be dressed as Arabs and carrying explosives? Isn’t there an ongoing problem in Iraq with guys dressed as Arabs blowing things up?
I guess this lends credence to the U.S. official line that most of the violence is being perpetrated by “foreign infiltrators.” I just had no idea that the UK was part of the global Jihad network, durned Anglicans.
Maybe they will print a retraction tomorrow.
After Katrina, when I got to see with my own eyes just how boldly this gang lies, I had shudders down my spine thinking about Iraq.
Special ops indeed.
There is a fairly murky power play going on between the rival factions in the Shia community. The Al Sadr are opposed to the more secular “technocrats”. There are also armed gangs of criminals involved in kidnapping for profit. Several of these groups use fake police road blocks to intimidate or hijack so the standing orders for UK personnel is not to stop at them. Obviously they were flagged down while doing undercover work at a real road block and a mutual fire fight broke out.
The group of Army vehicles that went to get the two back were stoped by a protesting crowd which it is said suddenly appeared. One might well ask how they managed to just bring along enough molotov cocktails to engujlf one ofthe vehicles. Technically by the way these were not tanks but Warrior Armoured personnel Vehicles
The British deaths certainly are getting coverage here as the number of troops killed is approaching the psychologically important 100. Also not reported outside is the call by the Liberal Democrat Menzies (shortened to “Ming” from its pronunciation “Min-ges”) Campbell at the Liberal Democrat annual conference for a plan for the withdrawal of UK troops. This is in the context of the end of the UN mandate but also attaches conditions to ensure security.
By the way, the soldiers detained were almost certainly special forces as the UK broadcasters are obscuring their faces at the request of the Ministry of Defence “to avoid distressing the families”.
We for a long time have obviously not been seeing quite how bad Iraq actually is. What we often see on our news reports is probably only the tip of an iceberg.
In the last few weeks we have firstly seen the Tal Afar ethnic cleansing operation go into action backed by US forces. This was followed by Zarqawi’s declaration of war backed up by an ongoing slaughter currently in the hundreds with countless Iraqi police also being executed on a daily basis. Then we hear of 5 districts of Baghdad being completely under insurgent control and only Sadr city being free from insurgents. Now in previously peaceful Basra we see that there is no cooperation between local officials and the British army leading to the eh “legally questionable” storming of a prison to free some British soldiers. It seems like the Brits are acting just like another faction in Iraq staying in and protecting their turf and taking care of their own pretty much as Al Sadr does, and apparently the Brits now suspect the mayor of Basra is involved with the insurgents.
Even without much analysis it seems pretty clear that the situation in Iraq is much worse than anyone is letting on, and their is little doubt that civil war is already a reality.
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Two days after joined Iraqi-U.S. forces bombed the city of Tal Afar – “to make elections possible” – with hundreds of deaths, the reply came swiftly with at least twelve suicide bomb attacks in Baghdad and Central Iraq.
Al Zarqawi announced further revenge on the Shia community for cooperating with the occupying forces.
Kills over 180 Persons Updated!
There have been hundreds of Iraqis recruited for a suicide mission, this reminds me of the Iraq-Iran War and tens of thousands child-martyrs were send ahead of the Iranian troops on the battlefield to clear the mines.
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On this morning’s (BBC) radio, it is said that they broke out the captive troops because they’d hear that the men had been handed over to militants; they did not find them in the jail/police station, but at a nearby house after they had forced (?) the iraqis to say where they’d been taken.
All of the news on this is confused and rapidly changing – I am watching with interest.
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Two UK Special Ops men were apprehended at a road block of Iraqi police, doing their duty for security of all citizens. The UK undercover men in Arab clothes, with weapons and explosives, shot and killed an Iraqi policeman.
The Iraqi local government have an agreement to hand over each other’s soldiers, cq policemen after an incident. However, when you are not in uniform, there is no protection under any Geneva Convention,
because you will be considered a terrorist. These two UK terrorists can be tried by court martial and executed within hours, as the UK Iraq Command knew what was about to happen.
The UP Iraq Operations has been compromised by this incident, as there is proof that terrorists are operating from coalition side. When you don’t live by the rules, you will die without rules.
As I have stated recently :: UK Losing Basra?
… can be appropriately changed to :: UK are Losing Basra! – this diary.
The two UK men should be tried for war crime or murder, and can be tried in an International Court of Justice! That’s why the UK tried to prevent their photos from being published on the Internet.
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British forces using tanks have broken down the walls of the central jail in the southern city of Basra to free two Britons.British forces using tanks have broken down the walls of the central jail in the southern city of Basra to free two Britons.
The captives were allegedly undercover commandos, who had been arrested on charges of shooting two Iraqi policemen.
Witnesses said about 150 Iraqi prisoners fled the jail as well.
Iraqi police detained the two British soldiers in the Basra jail following a shooting incident, a British military spokesman and police sources said.
Britain, however, denied reports late on Monday that its troops had stormed the prison to free two soldiers, saying the pair were released after negotiations.
UK denial
“We’ve heard nothing to suggest we stormed the prison,” a Defence Ministry spokesman in London said. “We understand there were negotiations.” The spokesman said he had no more details of the soldiers’ release.
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At 7 AM EDT, this incident was mentioned in their roundup of headlines, but when they did the more detailed reporting that follows, the lead story was about compulsory population control methods in China. A story worthy of a report, of course, but is it really bigger news than losing control of the part of Iraq that stands between US troops and their home base in Kuwait?
There seems to be an attempt to downplay this everywhere, there is nothing on the main page of the NY Times, and the BBC News Front Page currently has Simon Wiesenthal’s death front and center, with news from Basra to be found pretty far down the list in the “Other Top Stories” index.
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At some point either last night or early AM today that included a large number of flattened automobiles. This would have been either on the CBS Evening News or the BBC World News. No explanation of how they’d gotten that way was given, obviously some heavy vehicles such as tanks or armored personnel carriers had ridden over them.
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After negotiations, the two men were handed over …
Police look at vehicles crushed by a tracked vehicle after a British raid on a jail in Basra. An Iraqi Interior Ministry official said that British forces stormed the Major Crimes Unit last night using six tanks and (later) freed two British undercover soldiers who had been arrested earlier in the day. Atef Hassan/Reuters▼ ▼ ▼
Here’s a link to the story the BBC does have:
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Contrary statement from Governor of Basra ::
“Act of barbaric aggression”.
The official statement from the British Ministery of Defence (MoD) has just been read on BBC News:
After negotiations with local authorities …
A wall may have been knocked down …
There was no specific unrest …
Police HQ in Basra …
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«« click on pic for article
A grab from footage released today, shows weapons which Iraqi police said were confiscated from two undercover British soldiers (SAS) after their arrest in Basra. Al-Iraqiya/Reuters/TV◊ by caribmon @dKos
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At an American gun show.
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Video grab shows weapons Iraqi police say were confiscated from undercover British soldiers (SAS) arrested in Basra.
«« click on pic to enlarge »»
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BASRA Sept. 18, 2005 — An Iraqi member of parliament has been killed and another wounded in a road ambush near Baghdad, the Interior Ministry says.
Faris Naser Husain was killed and his colleague Haydar Kasim Shinshu was wounded as the two MPs with the Kurdish list in parliament were heading towards Baghdad.
A driver and bodyguard were also killed in the attack, near Mushahada, 30km north of the capital, an Interior Ministry official said on Sunday.
US soldier killed
An US soldier was killed by a bomb explosion on Saturday, near al-Asad in western Iraq, the US military announced. His death brings to at least 1899 the number of American military personnel killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion of March 2003, according to Pentagon figures.
Basra protests
In a separate development, angry Shia militiamen took to the streets of the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Sunday, after British soldiers and police arrested their local leader, Iraqi army and Shia officials said.
Dozens of militiamen from Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s outlawed Jaish al-Mahdi (al-Mahdi Army) gathered around the local al-Sadr office.
Iraqi army officials said British soldiers and riot police on Saturday raided the home of local al-Mahdi Army leader Shaikh Ahmad al-Fartusi, arresting him, his brother and an unidentified third man.
There was no immediate comment from British forces in the area, although a spokesman confirmed that “an operation took place earlier”.
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Sounds like the Brits signed on to Negreponte’s Black Ops program, and then decided that it was more important to save their operatives than their public face.
Whatever happened to plausible deniability? 😀
The Brits have been leading a charmed life in Iraq. Guess that is going to change.
Saw the story on Reuters by way of Yahoo. They left a lot out, seemingly. No mention of riots at all.
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Already some of the Iraqi facts, coming from the Interior Minister in Baghdad, discounts just about everything UK MoD has released to the press as their version of events, you so often see as fact.
BBC World Radio reporter Richard Galpin in Baghdad, after interview of Iraqi Minister of Interior within last hour ::
Incidents of past two days in Basra caused the deaths of 5 citizens.
● BBC News – Probe Into Incident
In London, the pictures of the violence made the war seem very real. Video of the burning soldier in Basra was shown repeatedly yesterday on the BBC and other news stations but the photographs in newspapers seemed more haunting, showing a man frozen in flames.
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Iraqi police and civilians demonstrate against a British raid which freed two undercover soldiers in the southern city of Basra. Iraq’s Prime Minister was to meet Britain’s defence secretary in London with both countries working to quell tension.
The sign on right reads ‘We are the police of Iraq, we are here for Iraq, and do not accept HYPOCRISY’ and the sign on the left reads ‘no to occupiers – no to America’.
REUTERS/Atef Hassan
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British Press Ponders Fate of Troops in Iraq
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld appeared to blame Iran for the incident when he called on its Shia-led government not to overplay its hand in southern Iraq. The Iranians “are interested, they are involved and they are active. And it’s not helpful”.
Iran insisted it had no hand in the fresh violence in southern Iraq and dismissed as “baseless and fictitious” Rumsfeld’s allegations.
“The news published recently is baseless and fictitious, and it is circulating to cover up occupying forces’ inability to provide security in Iraq,” foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told state news agency IRNA.
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I posted this comment on an earlier diary, but what I wrote there fits equally well here.
A few points of clarification about this “rescue operation”.
First, there is no sovereign Iraqi nation. Iraqi is a colony and its “government” is allowed to “govern” so long as it doesn’t cross its Anglo-American masters.
Second, the reason these commandos were “rescued” is because they could be interrogated/tortured to obtain information on British operations (as well as American operations). Not only that, but it’s bad for troop morale if their brothers in arms are thrown to the wolves.
Third, I am almost certain that this “rescue operation” was approved at the highest levels of command. That means MoD (Ministry of Defence, which is a cabinet level position in the British government)–the field commanders didn’t decide to do this on their own. If approval wasn’t given for the specific operation, then MoD issued rules of engagement that permitted this “rescue”. This means that Blair and his government cannot credibly blame this inflammatory action on rogue troops or “loose cannon” commanders (and, indeed, they don’t seem to be doing so). (Disclaimer: I was a captain in the British Army (Desert Rats) during Gulf War I.)
Things are out of control in Iraq, and about to get much worse. British military intelligence indicate that it is only a matter of time until there is a Shiite uprising that will make the Sunni uprising against the occupation forces look like a picnic in the park. Of course, at this time there is a power struggle going on in Basra between rival factions–and one that will intensify when the British presence there is eliminated and matters are turned over to the “local authorities”. The problem is that there will be warfare to determine who the “local authorities” will be, and because of the clan structure of Iraqi society, the prospect of a civil war between Iraqis could become a dangerous, out-of-control blood feud.
Of course these renewed troubles will–the neocons believe–give them the excuse they need to prolong the occupation to “stabilise” Iraq. But what they don’t realise is that British intelligence also indicate that American and British forces will have to slaughter thousands to tamp down the anticipated uprisings…and that there is a “possibility” that American and British forces will find themselves encircled and besieged in certain areas.
Here’s the part that people who have not served in the military, and who haven’t any expertise in military matters, disagree with most strongly:
The Iraqis, even in a mass uprising, do not possess the ability to dislodge the Anglo-American occupation forces in ANY scenario. However, to prevent being run out of the country, the Americans and Brits will have to kill thousands of (armed) civilians.
The American and British armies are far better-equipped and trained than Saddam’s military–and Saddam successfully tromped down many rebellions. The Shiite leaders know that the streets will run with blood if they rise up en masse against the foreign occupation, but those counseling moderation may not be able to hold back the hotheads indefinitely.
IF–notice the cautionary “if”–the American and British forces are willing to slaughter thousands of Iraqis, they can tromp down any attempt to dislodge them. If you doubt what will happen, I refer you to the scourging of Fallujah, in which the city was isolated from the outside world by American forces and then purged by fire. Americans in particular have the will and the means to impose great suffering on the Iraqis–and, unlike we Brits, have not signed treaties that would make their soldiers subject to the jurisdiction of the war crimes tribunal in the Hague if they slaughter civilians. The desire to remove British troops from the scene of the coming bloodbath is one reason–besides the need for fresh troops in Afghanistan–why so many British troops have been redeployed from the Iraqi to Afghani theatre. British troops will find themselves in a sticky situation indeed if they exercise the degree of ruthlessness required to put down the eventual Shiite uprising.
The scourging of Fallujah: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallujah
I would remind you, as an example, that the Indians–who were far more numerous–were unable to force out the British colonial authority. What eventually ended British rule in India was the breaking of Britain’s power during the Second World War, after which Britain was forced to surrender the “jewel in the crown” (India) to self-determination. The Germans, in other words, freed the Indians–not the Indians themselves.
World War II fatally undermined Britain’s already weakened commercial and financial leadership and heightened the importance of the Dominions and the United States as a source of military assistance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Empire#Post_World_War_II_Extent
The distinction between the British/American forces occupying their country, and Saddam’s murderous regime, must be quite fuzzy in the minds of the Iraqis now.
Fasten your safety belts. The ride is about to become a whole lot bumpier.
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I did read your comments and I welcome your insight and contribution.
I try to find a balance in opinions in my diary and add worthwhile information to have a reference on the specific topic for the future.
I’m searching the web and will publish a complete timeline of events leading up to the riots and ended with the deaths of Iraqi bystanders and the UK initiated jail break.
The upcoming storm in Southern Iraq will be part of a political clash between MNF, Shia milities and Iran for its alleged support of insurgents.
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As always, the British government and military are taking a “no apologies, no excuses” position.
By the way, I should like to point out that tanks were NOT used to break down that wall–it was a Warrior armoured vehicle, which is not classified as a tank but rather as an APC (armoured personnel carrier). The vehicle’s main purpose is the transportation of infantry during patrols, or towards the frontline. However, I can understand the confusion amongst civilians, as the Warrior is designed as a dual-purpose vehicle and can also be used as a fighting vehicle (it has a 30 mm cannon as well as 7.62 mm chain gun and smoke grenade launchers. Its 360 degree turret also gives it a “tank-like” silhouette…but the tanks of the British Army are the Challenger II vehicles, which have heavier armour and travel less rapidly than the Warriors).
And its weaponry enables it to perform a dual role, as it can be used as a fighting vehicle.
Ian Cobain and Richard Norton-Taylor
Wednesday September 21, 2005
The Guardian
For some at Westminster, the dramatic events in Basra on Monday were a sure sign that Iraq is sliding towards civil war. For other, more sanguine voices, it was no worse than a busy night in Belfast.
According to Mohammad al-Waili, the governor of Basra province, the British army mounted a “barbaric, savage and irresponsible” raid on a police station. On the contrary, said Brigadier John Lorimer, commander of British troops in the region, Iraqi police had flouted the law in an “unacceptable” fashion, and two captured soldiers needed to be rescued.
What was clear last night was that the trust between the British army and Iraqi police – whom the British helped to train – has largely broken down. Many of the 7,000 Iraqi police in Basra are now said to owe allegiance not to the state, but to the mosque. According to some estimates, at least half will take orders from Moqtada al-Sadr, a radical Shia cleric.
Earlier this year, Steven Vincent, a journalist working for the New York Times, reported that British authorities were reluctant to interfere in the militias’ growing influence on the police. Shortly after his report was published, Mr Vincent was abducted by militiamen and shot dead.
On Sunday, the softly softly British approach appeared to come to an abrupt end when troops detained three leaders of the Mahdi army, the militia loyal to Mr Sadr. Among those held for questioning about bomb attacks was its local leader, Sheikh Ahmad Majid al-Fartusi. The arrests sparked demonstrations by around 200 supporters who blocked city centre streets, brandishing rifles.
During the next 36 hours, events moved quickly. First, on Monday afternoon, two undercover British soldiers, members of a special forces unit, were ordered to stop at an Iraqi police roadblock on the outskirts of the city. According to local reports, the men were driving fast in a civilian car. Each was wearing civilian clothes and Arabic headdress and, on being challenged, one opened fire on the officers, killing one and wounding a second.
John Reid, the defence secretary, said yesterday that the soldiers had been “doing their job”.”They were building up a picture and [getting] information to protect our soldiers and their operations.”
The pair were overwhelmed and taken initially to Jamiat police station in the city centre, where Arab journalists were allowed to take their photographs. Meanwhile, a crowd of men and youths gathered outside the police station, and began hurling rocks and petrol bombs at four British Warriors outside the building.
According to Iraqi reports, three demonstrators were killed and 15 injured. Television viewers around the world saw the moment that the gunner in one Warrior had to leap for his life as he and vehicle became engulfed by flames. Two others, members of the Coldstream Guards battle group, were also hurt. None of the injuries is thought to be life threatening.
At around this time, in the south-west of the city, a second New York Times journalist was being murdered. Fakher Haidar al-Tamimi, 38, who had also worked for the Guardian, had written an article for the Times in which he criticised the British authorities’ laissez-faire attitude. According to neighbours, one of the vehicles driven by the men who abducted him from his home was a police car.
On Monday afternoon the Ministry of Defence said British forces were negotiating for the release of the two soldiers. Under Iraqi law, the pair should have been handed over to the coalition forces. At one point, the Iraqi interior minister, Bayan Jabr, is understood to have demanded their release, but the police refused.
In the early hours of yesterday morning, the “negotiations” resulted in a Warrior punching a large hole in the police station’s perimeter wall and demolishing a couple of prefabricated buildings inside. An MoD spokesman suggested that this “might” have been an accident. “We would never orchestrate or authorise a jail break,” he insisted. During the melee, several dozen prisoners are reported to have escaped, although the MoD denies this.
Brigadier Lorimer said he had taken “the difficult decision to order entry” into the police station after his men discovered their captured comrades were no longer inside. The police admitted they had handed the two men to the Mahdi army.
One Iraqi member of parliament said yesterday that the Mahdi army had been hoping to keep the two men as hostages who could be exchanged for their arrested leaders. A helicopter is thought to have seen a car being driven from the police station, however, and the two soldiers were later rescued from a nearby house.
Yesterday police complained the British had behaved like “terrorists”. “A tank cannon struck a room where a policeman was praying,” said one officer, Abbas Hassan. “This is terrorism. All we had was rifles.”
Brigadier Lorimer preferred to describe it as “a difficult day”. He added: “We have put this behind us and will move on”.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/military/story/0,11816,1574811,00.html
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It seems journalists in Iraq, the front in freedom of speech when you want democracy to flourish, have been killed, murdered, kidnapped and pressured into censorship.
Numerous diaries have been written to praise the courage of these men and women, yet this weekend many have died at the hands of murderous thugs.
Iraqi journalist Fakher Haidar al-Tamimi (R) posing for a picture at the Basra International airport. Tamimi, who worked for foreign media in the country, was found shot dead in the southern city of Basra after he was kidnapped overnight, his wife said. AFP/Essam al-SudaniShadowthief, I would appreciate your take on this diary.
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The diary to which Londonbear referred is one that says the faces of the two SAS men ought not to be shown by the media.
The SAS are involved in operations that are quite sticky. I think the media ought to exercise restraint and not show their faces out of concern for the families of these men. Their wives, girlfriends, daughters, sons, parents, siblings–all of their family members, in other words–are now exposed to danger. The SAS have many enemies both within and outside the United Kingdom…there are quite a few IRA still extant who would like to gain bloody revenge against ANY member of the SAS, and more than a few Moslem fundies in England who’d like to do the same.
Mind you, I’m not worried about the SAS chaps themselves. The SAS chose this life and its attendant risks. I’m worried about their innocent families.
Thanks Oui, for posting this diary. I read it all – to the point of heartsickness.
What I’ll take from it is a copy of the AP photo of the boy with a slingshot and the tank – the title “Violence Erupts In Basra” changed to ‘David and Goliath.’ If I can I’ll be posting it everywhere.
Let’s use what they give us and connect it to our own mythology to tell the true story.
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By William Bowles
Sept. 19 — Fascinating. No really, the `evolution’ of state disinformation has probably never been better displayed than in the case of the two (more than likely) SAS soldiers who were `liberated’ after being arrested by the Iraqi police on 19 September by a phalanx of tanks and helicopter gunships that stormed the police station where the two undercover soldiers were being held after they allegedly failed to stop at an Iraqi police roadblock and subsequently opened fire on the Iraqi police, killing one and wounding another.
The car they were travelling in was loaded with weapons including allegedly, assault rifles, a light machine gun, an anti-tank weapon, radio gear and a medical kit (‘standard’ SAS issue according to the BBC). According to at least two reports, the car they were traveling in (A Toyota Cressida) was “booby-trapped”
Subsequent accounts vary according to the source but according to the initial story broadcast on the BBC (19/9/05), the two men wore traditional Arab dress but then this changed to “civilian dress” (BBC TV News).
[…]
By now, in a classic disinformation campaign, so many stories were being circulated that sorting out the truth from fiction was virtually impossible unless one is prepared to dig and dig deep.
What is clear is that the two SAS “undercover operatives” had been caught red-handed by the British government’s alleged allies, the Iraqi police, dressed as Arabs, replete with wigs and armed to the teeth and in a car which according to one report, was packed with explosives (the car by the way, has been taken away by the British occupation forces).
Iraqi policemen search a car at a checkpoint in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. Local authorities in southern Iraq said they were halting cooperation with British forces, whose soldiers stormed a Basra jail to release two of their men, until the pair was handed back to face Iraqi justice. AFP/Essam Al-Sudani[…]
So now, the two undercover SAS men were, it is imputed, searching for `insurgents’ as part of a counter-insurgency operation, which if true, what were they doing dressed as Iraqis?
Were they on some kind of provocative operation? According to one report, this is exactly what they were up to. Fattah al-Shaykh, a member of the Iraqi National Assembly told this account to al-Jazeera
If you really want to look for truth, then we should resort to the Iraqi justice away from the British provocations against the sons of Basra, particularly what happened today when the sons of Basra caught two non-Iraqis, who seem to be Britons and were in a car of the Cressida type. It was a booby-trapped car laden with ammunition and was meant to explode in the centre of the city of Basra in the popular market. However, the sons of the city of Basra arrested them. They [the two non-Iraqis] then fired at the people there and killed some of them. The two arrested persons are now at the Intelligence Department in Basra, and they were held by the National Guard force, but the British occupation forces are still surrounding this department in an attempt to absolve them of the crime.
And in yet another report from Syrian TV we read
[Al-Munajjid] In fact, Nidal, this incident gave answers to questions and suspicions that were lacking evidence about the participation of the occupation in some armed operations in Iraq. Many analysts and observers here had suspicions that the occupation was involved in some armed operations against civilians and places of worship and in the killing of scientists. But those were only suspicions that lacked proof. The proof came today through the arrest of the two British soldiers while they were planting explosives in one of the Basra streets. This proves, according to observers, that the occupation is not far from many operations that seek to sow sedition and maintain disorder, as this would give the occupation the justification to stay in Iraq for a longer period.
When viewed in the context of all the stories that have been circulating about the mythical `al-Zarqawi’ and the alleged role of al-Queda, the events in Basra are the first real evidence that we have of the role of occupation forces in destabilising Iraq through the use of agents provocateurs masquerading as `insurgents’.
And, as I have long alleged here, it is now almost certain that `al-Zarqawi’ is probably long dead.
[…]
The story that complicates this case further, has not been picked up by William Knowles, is the floating of false information about the Infra Red Devices or Bombs produced by Iran for Hezbollah in Lebanon and now used by Iraqi insurgents.
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