by seemslikeadream » Mon Sep 19, 2005 4:20 pm
<!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4260894.stm" target="top">news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4260894.stm</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br>British troops arrested in Basra <br> <br>British soldiers had to jump from their burning tank<br><br><br>Clashes in Basra <br>Two British soldiers have been arrested in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, sparking unrest outside a police station where they are being detained. <br>The men, who were reportedly under cover, are thought to have exchanged fire with police, after failing to stop at a checkpoint. <br><br>Two British tanks, sent to the police station where the soldiers are being held, were set alight in clashes. <br><br>But UK officials said they did not know why the pair were being detained. <br><br>Civilians 'killed' <br><br>TV pictures show soldiers in combat gear, jumping from one of the flaming tanks and making their escape. <br><br> <br>British officials would not say if the two men were working under cover <br><br>Officials said they had received no reports of UK personnel being injured, but local council spokesman Nadhim al Jabari said two civilians were killed in the clashes. <br><br>Up to 15 civilians were also reported injured in the demonstrations. <br><br>Tensions have been running high in the city since the arrest of a senior figure in the Shia Mehdi Army by UK troops. <br><br>In other developments: <br><br><br>Nine Iraqi police and a civilian have died in suicide bombings between Baghdad and Karbala, where Shias are attending a major religious festival <br><br>The Iraqi government says a nephew of Saddam Hussein, Ayman Sabawi, has been sentenced to life in prison for funding Iraq's insurgency <br><br>An Iraqi reporter working for the New York Times, Fakher Haider, has been found dead in Basra <br><br>Iraq's Finance Minister, Ali Allawi, tells the UK's Independent newspaper that large-scale corruption in Iraq's ministries, particularly the defence ministry, has led to the theft of more than $1bn. <br>The Ministry of Defence said British officials were seeking access to the detained men and were trying to find out why they were being held. <br><br>Civilian clothes <br><br>But the BBC's Caroline Hawley said a call from the British ambassador for the men to be released had not been acted upon. <br><br>It was now a "serious diplomatic incident", she said, with the British authorities trying to secure their freedom. <br><br>An Iraqi official in Basra said the British military had informed him the detained men were under cover soldiers. <br><br>This has not been confirmed, but pictures of two soldiers being detained in police cells show the men wearing civilian clothes. <br><br>The official said: "They were driving a civilian car and were dressed in civilian clothes when a shooting took place between them and Iraqi patrols. <br><br> <br>A British soldier is engulfed by flames as he tries to escape <br><br>"We are investigating and an Iraqi judge is on the case questioning them." <br><br>An MoD spokeswoman in London would only say: "We can confirm that the Iraqi authorities are holding two UK service personnel and we are liaising with the Iraqi authorities on this matter." <br><br>But another report said British forces had phoned the ministry in Baghdad to say the two detained soldiers were involved in "an intelligence mission". <br><br>BBC world affairs correspondent Richard Galpin said tension had been growing in Basra since the arrest on Sunday of a senior figure in the Shia Mehdi Army militia, suspected by the British military of being behind a series of attacks on troops. <br><br>His arrest drew crowds onto the streets of Basra demanding his release. <br><br>Richard Galpin said British troops had since carried out further raids and made more arrests, sparking further unrest. <br> <br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1196214,00.html" target="top">www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1196214,00.html</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br>SERVICEMEN HELD IN IRAQ <br> <br>Violent clashes erupted in Basra after two British servicemen allegedly shot dead one Iraqi policeman and wounded another.<br><br>The Britons were arrested by Iraqi authorities and held at the city's main police station, according to local officials.<br><br><br>British troops soon arrived and encircled the building where they were attacked by demonstrators with stones and petrol bombs.<br><br>One soldier was seen engulfed by flames tumbling from a tank and gunfire was exchanged between the two sides, leaving two civilians dead and 15 injured.<br><br>The Ministry of Defence said there were no reports of any injured, with all troops and vehicles accounted for, although it was "a fast-moving situation".<br><br>Basra security officials said the two Britons arrested were undercover officers dressed as Arabs.<br><br>The MoD refused to comment on reports that the men were working undercover or were special forces personnel.<br><br>A spokesman said: "We can confirm that two military personnel were detained by Iraqi authorities earlier today."<br><br>He added: "They are still being detained. We are continuing to try to thrash out with the Iraqi authorities what's happened and what can be done. We are trying to get to the bottom of what happened but at the moment we don't know."<br><br>Photographs showed the unshaven pair in custody, dressed casually in T-shirts and trousers, and sitting on the floor with their hands behind their backs.<br><br>One of the men had his head swathed in bandages and appeared to have bloodstains on his top. The other, who apparently had blood smeared on his trousers, had plasters on his head.<br><br>Nadhim al-Jabari, the Basra provincial council's spokesman, said the two men were likely to go before an Iraqi court. It was unclear if they had yet been charged.<br><br>He said top officials from Basra province were negotiating to defuse the crisis.<br><br>Tensions have been rising in recent months in the British-controlled region, with civilians and soldiers killed in suspected insurgent attacks.<br><br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/19/AR2005091900572.html?nav=rss_world" target="top">www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/19/AR2005091900572.html?nav=rss_world</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br>British Soldiers Clash With Iraqi Police in Basra<br>Governor's House Attacked by Shiite Militiamen<br><br>By Jonathan Finer and Omar Fekeiki<br>Washington Post Foreign Service<br>Monday, September 19, 2005; 3:12 PM<br><br>BASRA, Iraq, Sept. 19 -- Heavy clashes erupted Monday between Iraqi police and British soldiers based in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, witnesses said.<br><br>The clashes are the latest in surging tensions in Basra, a Shiite-dominated city that had long been one of Iraq's calmest. Attacks have targeted Britons and Americans there.<br><br> <br> <br><br>News From Iraq<br>British Soldiers Clash With Iraqi Police in Basra<br>U.S. Claims Success in Iraq Despite Onslaught<br>British Arrest Two Affiliated With Sadr<br>Car Bomb Kills 30 In Baghdad Market<br>World Bank Considers Sending Staff Back to Baghdad <br>More News<br><br>Who's Blogging?<br>Read what bloggers are saying about this article.<br>Edit Copy<br>A Lie a Day<br><br><br> Full List of Blogs (2 links) »<br><br><br> <br>Monday's clashes stemmed from the arrest by Iraqi police on Sunday of two British soldiers, whom Iraqi police accused of planting bombs. Iraqi officials described the two as undercover soldiers dressed in civilian clothes and said a shooting incident broke out when police stopped their civilian vehicle.<br><br>A Western military spokesman in Basra confirmed "an ongoing disturbance" in the city on Monday but said Iraqi and British forces were working together to quell it.<br><br>"There is public disorder going on," the official said. "We are aware that Iraqi authorities are holding U.K. service personnel, and we are liaising with Iraqi authorities on the matter."<br><br>Witnesses said the clashes developed amid British attempts to win the release of the two Britons. Fighting in the city continued into Monday evening, and witnesses saw a British armored vehicle in flames after it was allegedly set on fire by Iraqi police. Police convoys circulated in downtown Basra, urging residents to help stop the British from freeing the two soldiers.<br><br>Earlier, gunmen loyal to a radical Shiite Muslim cleric attacked the house of Basra's governor to press demands for the release of two prominent members of the cleric's militia who were arrested Sunday by British forces.<br><br>The house of Mohammed Musabah, a 43-year-old technocrat who runs Basra, came under attack early Monday from rocket-propelled grenades and mortar rounds. There were no reports of injuries.<br><br>Musabah, a former businessman who took office in Basra in March, blamed the attack on the militia of Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, whose movement is a rival to the Shiite political party that now holds political power in Basra.<br><br>In a separate development in Basra, an Iraqi working as a local reporter in Basra for the New York Times was found dead Monday after being kidnapped by masked men, sources close to his family said. Fakher Haider was found with his hands bound and a single gunshot wound to the head hours after having been seized at his home by four men who took him away in handcuffs, telling the family they wanted to interrogate him. The masked men did not identify themselves as police, the sources said.<br><br>The killing came a month after an American freelance journalist, Steven Vincent, was kidnapped and killed in Basra. He was working on a book about the city and had written an opinion piece for the New York Times in which he criticized Basra's security forces.<br><br>In the port city of 1.5 million people on the banks of the Shatt al Arab river, residents say the local police force of 13,600 has become as much an instrument of fear as security, Washington Post correspondent Anthony Shadid reported last month. Musabah, the governor of Basra, acknowledged in an interview that the police were infiltrated by religious parties. His police chief, Hassan Sawadi, told the British newspaper the Guardian that he had lost control over three-quarters of his police force and that militiamen inside its ranks were using their posts to assassinate opponents. Soon after, Musabah said, the Interior Ministry ordered Sawadi not to speak again publicly.<br><br>MORE<br><br>http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4817779At DU<br>muriel_volestrangler <br> Channel 4 TV in the UK speculated that it might be spying on the Iraqi police, who are thought to have factions allied to Sadr.<br> <br> <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=seemslikeadream@rigorousintuition>seemslikeadream</A> at: 9/19/05 2:31 pm<br></i>