[Peace-discuss] Brits bust out their own

[Ricky Baldwin]

My British in-laws will be shaking their heads (again)
at the unimaginable stupidity of their government.  I
think it's very interesting, both for the modicum of
independence it shows among "our Iraqis" (vs. the
"insurgents") and for the suggestion that even that
tidbit will not be allowed.

Incidentally, it also says something about how well
our screening for Iraqi cops is going (even after we
were alerted to a problem by several US-trained cops
turning on us over the last couple years).  What it
says about anti-US attacks against these cops, I'm not
sure exactly, except that it doesn't negate the
obvious: that such attacks are wrong AND that it is
the taint of US-occupier-collaboration that gets these
cops killed (so the US should pull out immediately if
not sooner).

Ricky

Britain Defends Using Force to Free Troops 
By THOMAS WAGNER, Associated Press Writer
9-21-05

About 500 civilians and policemen rallied Wednesday in
the southern city of Basra and denounced "British
aggression" following London's decision to use force
to free two of its soldiers being held by Iraqi
police.

Attacks by insurgents continued in and around Baghdad,
with a roadside bomb wounding two U.S. soldiers. The
blast came a day after the death toll for U.S. forces
in Iraq rose to more than 1,900.

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."

Some of the protesters met with the Basra police
chief, Gen. Hassan Sawadi, to demand a British
apology, said police spokesman Col. Karim al-Zaidi.
Heavily armed soldiers and police watched the protest
but didn't intervene.

Clashes between British forces and Iraqi police have
killed five civilians, including two who died of their
injuries Wednesday in a hospital, authorities said.

The fighting occurred Monday night when British forces
used armored vehicles to storm a Basra jail and free
their two soldiers who had been arrested by police.
During the raid, British forces learned that Shiite
Muslim militiamen and police had moved the men to a
nearby house. The British then stormed that house and
rescued them.

Interior Minister Bayan Jabr disputed the British
account. He told the British Broadcasting Corp. 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.
Britain defended its action, saying the men were first
stopped by plainclothes gunmen, then moved by
militiamen from a jail to a private home while British
officials tried to negotiate their release with Iraqi
officials.

Lisa Glover, a British Foreign Office spokeswoman in
Baghdad, said Wednesday the two soldiers "were
challenged by armed men in plain clothes ... and they
obviously didn't know who there were being challenged
by." But "when Iraqi police asked them to stop, they
did," she said in an interview with The Associated
Press.

She said British officials had been negotiating with
Iraqi authorities in Basra for the release of the two
soldiers with an Iraqi judge present. "When it became
apparent they were no longer at the station, but had
been moved elsewhere, we naturally became concerned."

British Defense Minister John Reid said his forces
were "absolutely right" to act. But a spokesman for
Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said the
operation was "very unfortunate."

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."

Al-Jaafari's office in Baghdad issued a statement
Tuesday afternoon, insisting there is no crisis in
relations between the two countries.

At first, Basra police said the men shot and killed a
policeman, but on Tuesday al-Jaafari's spokesman,
Haydar al-Abadi, said the men — who were wearing
civilian clothes — were grabbed for behaving
suspiciously and collecting information.

The British said the soldiers had been handed over to
a militia. The Basra governor confirmed the claim,
saying the Britons were in the custody of the al-Mahdi
Army, the militia controlled by radical Shiite cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr.

"The two British were being kept in a house controlled
by militiamen when the rescue operation took place,"
said Gov. Mohammed al-Waili.

"Police who are members of the militia group took them
to a nearby house after jail authorities learned the
facility was about to be stormed," he said, demanding
that the British soldiers be handed over to local
authorities for trial. He would not say what charges
they might face.

Britain's position appeared to be strengthened by
al-Rubaie, who acknowledged that one problem coalition
forces face is that insurgents have joined the ranks
of security forces. 

"Iraqi security forces in general, police in
particular, in many parts of Iraq, I have to admit,
have been penetrated by some of the insurgents, some
of the terrorists as well," he said in an interview
with the BBC on Tuesday night. 

Officials in Basra, speaking on condition of anonymity
because they feared for their lives, said at least 60
percent of the police force there is made up of Shiite
militiamen from one of three groups: the Mahdi Army;
the Badr Brigade, the armed wing of the Supreme
Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq; and
Hezbollah in Iraq, a small group based in the southern
marshlands. 

All militia have deep historical, religious and
political ties to Iran, where many Shiite political
and religious figures took refuge during the rule of
Saddam Hussein. 

While about 135,000 U.S. troops operate throughout
Iraq, the 8,500 British forces are headquartered in
the Basra region. 

In Wednesday's violence in and around Baghdad, a
roadside bomb exploded as a U.S. military convoy drove
through the Abu Ghraib area on the western outskirts
of the capital, wounding two soldiers, said Lt. Jamie
Davis, a spokesman for the U.S. Army. 

Iraqi police 1st Lt. Mohammed Khayon said the U.S.
forces then opened fire on people in the area,
wounding an Iraqi civilian, but Davis couldn't confirm
that. 

Roadside bombs also exploded near two other U.S.
convoys in southwestern Baghdad and in the Taji area
north of the capital. No soldiers were wounded, Davis
said. 

Iraqi forces fought with suspected insurgents based in
several homes near the United Arab Emirates Embassy in
the Mansour neighborhood, and two policemen, one
soldier and five insurgents were killed, said army
Brig. Abdeljalil Khalaf. 

The fighting began after an Iraqi the insurgents had
tried to kidnap reported the militants to Iraqi
forces, who then raided several homes and found bombs
and weapons, said Maj. Falah al-Mohamdawi of the
Interior Ministry. 

In the Euphrates River insurgent stronghold of
Haditha, a coalition raid Sunday on a terrorist
safehouse killed Shehab Hamed, also known as Abu Ali,
a regional leader of the al-Qaida in Iraq insurgent
group, the U.S. military said. Hamed had recently
moved from Qaim, near the Syrian border, to Haditha,
it said. 

On Monday, four U.S. soldiers attached to the Marines
died in two roadside bombings near the insurgent
stronghold of Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad. 

Three soldiers died Friday, but their deaths weren't
announced until Tuesday. 
And a soldier from the 18th Military Police Brigade
was killed in a roadside bombing 75 miles north of the
capital Tuesday, the military said. 

The deaths raised the overall toll of U.S. troops
killed in Iraq to 1,907. 

In addition, a Diplomatic Security agent attached to
the U.S. State Department and three private American
security guards were killed Monday when their convoy
was hit by a suicide car bomber in Mosul, the U.S.
Embassy said. The four were attached to the U.S.
Embassy's regional office in Mosul. 
___ 
Associated Press Writers Tarek El-Tablawy in Baghdad
and Abbas Fayadh in Basra contributed to this report.




		
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