Posted on 01/04/2004 11:32:14 AM PST by anymouse
British Prime Minister Tony Blair made a surprise visit to Iraq Sunday and told British troops they were "new pioneers of soldiering," fighting against terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and brutal regimes.
In Iraq's second city Basra, in the south, Blair said world security was threatened by the "virus of Islamic extremism" and "brutal and repressive states which are developing weapons that can cause destruction on a massive scale."
Blair, Washington's chief ally in invading Iraq in March and occupying it since, gave weapons of mass destruction as the main justification for joining the U.S.-led campaign despite stiff domestic opposition. No such weapons have been found.
This was Blair's second visit to Iraq since Saddam Hussein was toppled in April and follows a high-profile and secretive trip by President Bush in November, when he joined troops to celebrate the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday.
In the northern oil city of Kirkuk, U.S. troops raided the offices of two main parties of the Kurdish minority following ethnic strife last week in which at least six people were killed.
One senior member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) was taken into custody after the raids Saturday night, a U.S. military spokesman said.
A KDP office and an adjacent office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan were both raided, he said. Troops seized AK-47 rifles and rocket-propelled grenades in the raids as they sought to defuse the potential for further blood-letting.
While Kurds are one of the U.S. military's chief allies in Iraq, the Americans are keen to show that they will deal even-handedly with all groups to ease any ethnic tension.
Arabs and Turkmen in Kirkuk oppose a plan put forward by Kurds on Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council to grant significant autonomy to a Kurdish area based in three provinces they wrested from Baghdad after the 1991 Gulf War, and which would include Kirkuk.
RELENTLESS INSURGENCY
In Baghdad, a U.S. military spokesman said 83 suspected guerrillas were arrested over the past 24 hours, including a personal photographer of Saddam. At least three U.S. soldiers were killed in ambushes Friday.
Blair urged soldiers to concentrate on winning the peace in a country riven by a relentless insurgency against occupying forces, saying that would ensure a stable future.
"Part of the pride people feel in you is the knowledge that in years to come, people in this country ... will look back on what you've done and ... recognize that they owe you a tremendous debt of gratitude," Blair said.
He later met the United States' top administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, to discuss the political transition toward Iraqi self-rule, with power due to be handed over by July 1.
He also held a short meeting with the governor of Basra, Judge Wael Abdullatif, and promised to remain committed to Iraq until it was safe and stable enough to govern itself.
"Our purpose is very simple. It is to help Iraq to become a stable, prosperous, democratic country that is going to be run by Iraqis under the sovereignty and control of the Iraqis themselves," he said after meeting the governor.
During his trip Blair was taken by helicopter to a former prison at the town of Zubayr where British, Danish, Czech and Italian police are running a training academy for Iraqi police.
Basra and the southern region which they patrol have been stable compared to other parts of the country, where the United States has lost more than 200 soldiers to guerrilla attacks since it declared major combat over in May.
Twenty British soldiers have died in combat since the war was launched on March 20, and more than 30 have been killed in non-combat or "friendly fire" incidents.
Jolly good show o' boy! Pip, pip and all that rot.
Should be: Twenty British soldiers have died in combat since the war was launched on March 20, and more than 30 have been killed in either non-combat or "friendly fire" incidents.
Thirty Brits have not been killed by friendly fire but by leaving out the word "either" Reuters makes it possible for the reader to come away with that impression, i.e., Reuters makes it possible for the reader to plausibly assume that "friendly fire" is just another way of saying "non-combat." And who's spraying all this irresponsible friendly fire? Gotta be the Yanks of course.
Just another example of how the media uses every slipshod method imaginable to smear and stain our efforts in Iraq.
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