Posted on 05/06/2006 8:52:35 AM PDT by AntiGuv
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A British military helicopter crashed in Basra on Saturday, and Iraqis hurled stones at British troops and set fire to three armored vehicles that rushed to the scene. Clashes broke out between British troops and Shiite militias, police and witnesses said.
Police Capt. Mushtaq Khazim said the helicopter was apparently shot down in a residential district. He said the four-member crew was killed, but British officials would say only that there were "casualties."
British forces backed by armored vehicles rushed to the area but were met by a hail of stones from the crowd of at least 250 people, who jumped for joy and raised their fists as a plume of thick smoke rose into the air from the crash site.
The crowd set three British armored vehicles on fire, apparently with gasoline bombs and a rocket-propelled grenade, but the soldiers inside escaped unhurt, witnesses said.
British troops shot into the air trying to disperse the crowd, then shooting broke out between the British and Iraqi militiamen, Khazim said. At least four people, including a child, were killed, he said. Two of the victims were adults shot by British troops while driving a car in the area, Khazim said.
The crowd chanted "we are all soldiers of al-Sayed," a reference to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, an ardent foe of the presence of foreign troops in Iraq.
Later the crowd scattered after hearing explosion, but groups of men set fire to tires in the streets and the situation remained tense. The chaotic scene was widely shown on Iraqi state television and on the Al-Jazeera satellite station.
The attack on the helicopter came at a difficult time for the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair in Britain, where many people oppose the U.S.-led Iraq war.
After a poor showing by his Labour Party in local elections this week, Blair overhauled his Cabinet, ousting Foreign Secretary Jack Straw's following rumors that he and Blair had differed on issues including Iraq. Straw reportedly had expressed doubts about the Iraq war to his boss.
In violence elsewhere, a suicide bomber wearing an Iraqi army uniform entered an Iraqi base in Tikrit and detonated an explosives belt, killing an Iraqi lieutenant colonel, a major and a lieutenant and wounding a lieutenant colonel, said the Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Mohammed Jassim.
The U.S. command also announced that an American soldier was killed by the roadside bomb in Baghdad on Friday. At least 2,417 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003.
Britain has about 8,000 soldiers based in the mostly Shiite Basra area. Southern Iraq has long been much less violent than Baghdad and western Iraq where Sunni Arab-led insurgents and al-Qaida in Iraq launch many attacks against Iraqi civilians and U.S. and Iraqi forces.
But Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the Shiite religious leader, hasn't always been able to keep growing anti-coalition fervor among Shiite radicals under control.
In September, British forces arrested two officials of the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia loyal to al-Sadr, raising tensions in Basra. About a week later, militiamen and residents clashed with British troops after two soldiers disguised as Arabs were detained by Iraqi authorities.
British forces launched a raid to free the men and an Iraqi judge issued a homicide warrant for their arrest. British officials said the warrant was illegal under Iraqi law and their personnel were immune to prosecution in Iraq.
The bomber in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit targeted a group of Iraqi army recruits who had just finished their training and were being dispatched to another area of Iraq, Jassim said. Officials in Tikrit said the bomber apparently told guards that he wanted to see one of the officers and was admitted to the base without being searched.
The attack in the Sunni Arab city 80 miles north of Baghdad appeared to be part of a campaign by Sunni-led insurgents to discourage Sunnis from joining Iraqi security forces. The Bush administration hopes that newly trained Iraqi soldiers and police can one day improve security in Iraq enough to begin withdrawing U.S. forces from the country.
In a bid to counter the U.S. efforts, Sunni militants have targeted Sunnis who cooperate with the government, including Iraqi army and police.
A roadside bomb also exploded Saturday near a Polish convoy in Diwaniyah south of Baghdad, wounding three soldiers, Poland's Defense Ministry said. Poland has about 900 soldiers in south-central Iraq, where it commands an international force.
In other developments Saturday:
• A bomb in a parked car exploded, killing two policemen and an Iraqi soldier and wounding four civilians about 30 miles north of Baqouba, police said.
• Suspected insurgents kidnapped seven Iraqis, including three paramilitary policemen, south of Baghdad in an area where a roadside bomb killed three U.S. service members the day before.
• Roadside bombs hit two Iraqi police patrols in Baghdad, killing one officer and wounding two policemen and six civilians.
• Two rockets or mortar shells were fired in northern Baghdad, one hitting a home and killing two children and wounding a woman.
• Police in Baghdad found the bodies of 13 Iraqi men, five of them relatives from Iraq's Sunni Arab minority, who had been kidnapped and brutally killed, police said.
• A drive-by shooting killed two brothers in Baghdad, police Capt. Firas Queti said.
• A roadside bomb in the northern city of Mosul wounded two Iraqi policemen. Police also found the bullet-ridden bodies of a father and son who had been kidnapped earlier in the day.
• Iraqi and U.S. forces searched shops for weapons and imposed a curfew in Rawah, a Sunni city 175 miles northwest of Baghdad.
This was Sadr laying down the gauntlet though because he knows Tony doesn't have the political standing in his country left to pick it up.
An attack on a British helicoper in Basra follwed by Madhi boys hitting the responders with RPGs and the Madhi Army setting up a bunch of civilians in hopes the Brits will shot at them and thus horrify the British people back home.
If Al-Jazeera starts broadcasting in the US then there will be TWICE the amount of anti-US news. Just like the above article only more vicious.
They are after all Shiite militias, and Iran is the Shiite-iest country in the neighborhood.
When did it become politically correct amongst the Old Media to start calling the "insurgents" "Militiamen?"
Seems I missed the memo.
And doesn't the Old Media hate militias?
Who is prohibiting us from dealing with these terrorists and terrorist supporters? Why is this Muqtada al-Sadr still alive and free? Free our military to do their jobs and get this war OVER.
You have no idea what you are talking about - This war is being led not by politicians but by our Mil HQ's on the ground....though it is easy to simply spout of complete BS about "vietnam" comparisons where absolutely none exist.
Al-Sadr was seen by both our Mil HQ's as well as Iraqis as a problem to be left to the Iraqi's down the road. Furthermore al-Sadr is the most over-hyped and valued person within Iraq (by the Western media). He is nothing more then a grade-school drop out version of Jesse Jackson (and yes, he is a tool for Iran).
All this ankle biting over every time a situation doesn't go completely right is BS - We have fought and continue to fight the most successful unconventional war in history. This is continually ignored. Since Sept 11th, our enemies have suffered one strategic defeat after another...we have not suffered one!
War is hell and terrible sh*t happens in them. Good men & women die. That is the ugly reality of war.
But just as this article about tries to mention "other developments" and then list 8-10 bullet point negative news items (which many are of no real importance)...where is the dozens and dozens of bullet points touting our successes of the last few days??? (no matter how minute they may appear...just as they give print to those negative events that take place that are of no real significance!).
People throwing rocks at troops should be shot in the act, & I don't care how old they are. A few dead rock throwers will discourage this crap.
One well place big boomer early on would have prevented all this crap!
Yeah, sure, that'll work. /sarcasm
Next they tried shouting "BOO!" real loud...
"doubt it..."
You don't know what you're talking about. The Iranian influence in the Basra area is significant. Without revealing too much because of OPSEC, I can tell you that this is a huge issue.
I'm a UH-60 pilot deployed in Iraq right now. I flew for 4 hours in the Basra area yesterday. We were there today. The Iranian threat is real and building.
Don't ask me alot of details because I can't reveal them over the internet. However, as a senior staff officer here for over 6 months with 6 to go, you will hear more about Basra soon.
"HELL!! Give EVERYONE in IRAQ a GUN!!--every last Man, women, child! and let THEM shoot on sight anyone who looks like a Terrorist --for a small reward!!"
What a great idea. That way, women and children can start killing our soldiers. You have to be joking.
Time to drain that swamp.
If the British had been serious in the first place, the innocents would have already fled in fear of retribution. As it is, the bad guys will be warned and leave, the innocents will remain, thinking that the British wouldn't dare harm them. The bad guys probably have an easier time leaving, it's the "innocents" who own houses and businesses and have families who have a hard time leaving. It's the "innocent", or some portion thereof, who provide cover and support for the bad guys.
Just level the place. Use bulldozers if you don't care to kill folks, other than the odd Rachel Corrie or two. Nobody will believe you until the first buildings fall; the leaflets are a waste of time and just another argument that you aren't serious.
Yes, I agree. PC or Human Rights or some other such BS has changed things (everything!).
40 yrs ago, as a UK serviceman I learnt that, when acting in aid of a civil power, and in charge of a section of armed men if subjected to attack by a mob - the Riot Act having been read - That I was to identify to a marksman a specific ringleader within the mob and initially order him to fire a single lethal shot. The body was to be immediately recovered by a 'grab squad'. Thereafter, the game was on. Lethal fire was the order of the day. Under no circumstances were the section to be ordered to fire aimlessly over the heads of the mob.
I think Northern Ireland troubles/Government spinelessness changed all that and stone/paving slab/cocktail/bomb throwing came to be considered just a way of the mob letting off steam. Meanwhile, the squaddies burned.
Once Anbar is fully pacified, it's the end for Sadr and his militia. The Iraqi Army will do the job.
And then wish them all a fond fare-thee-well.
Make sure the weapons aren't loaded though,
because they'll surely be shooting us in the back as we go.
Sounds like a sensible plan.
PC is deadly...to the innocent.
Because they are a militia.... The Mahadi are essentially Sadr's private army.
So they shouldn't have given them a final warning before opening fire? I'm sure that not everyone in that crowd was throwing rocks...a helicopter crash attracts attention. The curious will run away when shots are fired...the stupid and beligerant will stay and die.
The media would have had a field day if they had just fired into the crowd...trust me on that one. Atleast they were "warned", and in doing so the Mahadi shot first...robbing them of a media/"moral" victory.
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