British Soldiers Clash With Iraqi Police in Basra

Washington Post ^ | September 19, 2005 | Jonathan Finer and Omar Fekeiki

[nj26]

Heavy clashes erupted Monday between Iraqi police and British soldiers based in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, witnesses said.

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.

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.

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.

"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."

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.

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.

[nj26]

I sure hope that nobody in our military is taking orders from these Iraqi police, or relying upon them in any meaningful way...

[DJ Taylor]

I'm beginning to understand why Saddam had to hose these people down with Sarin gas every once in a while just to make them act right.

[Plutarch]

B-but I thought that the Brits, due to their colonial and Northern Ireland experience, were better than the cowboy Americans at ingratiating themselves with these restive indigenous populations?