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Topic: British troops arrested in Basra (nsc) Return to archive
September 19th, 2005 04:07 PM
Back Street Girl British troops arrested in Basra

British soldiers had to jump from their burning tank


Clashes in Basra
Two British soldiers have been arrested in the southern Iraq city of Basra, sparking clashes outside a police station where they are being held.
The men, said to have been under cover, reportedly exchanged fire with police after failing to stop at a checkpoint.

Two British tanks, sent to the police station where the soldiers are being held, were set alight in clashes.

Three UK servicemen were injured during the day, but the MoD would not say if they were caught in the firebombing.



TV pictures show soldiers in combat gear, jumping from one of the flaming tanks and making their escape.


British officials would not say if the two men were working under cover

Local council spokesman Nadhim al Jabari said two civilians were killed in the clashes.

Up to 15 civilians were also reported injured in the demonstrations.

Tensions have been running high in the city since the arrest of a senior figure in the Shia Mehdi Army by UK troops.


Nine Iraqi police and a civilian have died in suicide bombings between Baghdad and Karbala, where Shias are attending a major religious festival

The Iraqi government says a nephew of Saddam Hussein, Ayman Sabawi, has been sentenced to life in prison for funding Iraq's insurgency

An Iraqi reporter working for the New York Times, Fakher Haider, has been found dead in Basra

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.
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.
But the BBC's Caroline Hawley said a call from the British ambassador for the men to be released had not been acted upon.

It was now a "serious diplomatic incident", she said, with the British authorities trying to secure their freedom.

An Iraqi official in Basra said the British military had informed him the detained men were under cover soldiers.

This has not been confirmed, but pictures of two soldiers being detained in police cells show the men wearing civilian clothes.

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.


A British soldier is engulfed by flames as he tries to escape

"We are investigating and an Iraqi judge is on the case questioning them."

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."

But another report said British forces had phoned the ministry in Baghdad to say the two detained soldiers were involved in "an intelligence mission".

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.

His arrest drew crowds onto the streets of Basra demanding his release.

Richard Galpin said British troops had since carried out further raids and made more arrests, sparking further unrest.

Violence has been increasing in the British-controlled Basra region in recent months, with two soldiers killed by a roadside bomb on 5 September and a third on 11 September.




September 19th, 2005 04:29 PM
Back Street Girl TANKS 'BREAK JAIL WALLS'

British forces using tanks broke down the walls of Basra jail to free two service personnel arrested for firing on Iraqi policemen, according to reports.

Witnesses said about 150 Iraqi prisoners fled the jail as well.


The Ministry of Defence would not comment on the report.

Violence erupted earlier in the city after the two men were arrested for allegedly shooting dead one policeman and wounding another.

The MoD refused to comment after officials said that they were undercover officers dressed as Arabs.

British troops had arrived at the police station where the two men were being held and encircled the building, where they were attacked by demonstrators with stones and petrol bombs.

One soldier was seen engulfed by flames tumbling from a tank and gunfire was exchanged between the two sides, leaving three soldiers injured and two civilians dead while 15 others were injured.

Earlier an MoD spokesman said: "We can confirm that two military personnel were detained by Iraqi authorities earlier today."

He added: "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."

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.

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.

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.

He said top officials from Basra province were negotiating to defuse the crisis.

Earlier Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Sir Menzies Campbell said: "If these events reflect a breakdown in the relationship between the civilian authorities and the British military, then they are very worrying indeed.

"These events underline the need for a coherent exit strategy of British forces from Iraq."

Tensions have been rising in recent months in the British-controlled region, with civilians and soldiers killed in suspected insurgent attacks.
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