Posted on 08/25/2006 12:03:52 PM PDT by Marius3188
AMARAH, Iraq -- Looters ravaged a former British base Friday, a day after the camp was turned over to Iraqi troops, taking everything from doors and window frames to corrugated roofing and metal pipes, authorities said.
About 1,200 British troops had been stationed at Camp Abu Naji in Amarah, 200 miles southeast of Baghdad, and the base had come under almost daily attack. The troops pulled out Thursday to redeploy along the border with Iran to crack down on weapons smuggling.
Shortly after the troops pulled out, Iraqi police managed to disperse looters by firing warning shots into the air, said Dhaffar Jabbar, spokesman for the Maysan provincial governor's office. But the looters returned Friday.
"The British forces left Abu Naji and the locals started looting everything," 1st Lt. Rifaat Taha Yaseen of the Iraqi army's 10th Division told AP Television News. "They took everything from the buildings."
Men, some with their faces covered, ripped corrugated metal from roofs, carried off metal pipes and backed trucks into building entrances to load them with wooden planks.
Several Iraqi soldiers, apparently unarmed, did not seem to make any effort to stop the looting.
"There are only few soldiers at Abu Naji camp. Some of the residents were carrying weapons so they (the soldiers) did not want bloodshed and with such a big number, they cannot stop them," Jabbar said.
Lt. Tahseen Abid Ali said the Iraqi army had taken up positions in a corner of the camp, but was unable to stop the looting.
Another officer, 1st Lt. Ammar Karim Ahmed, said the army had seen "hundreds (of looters) coming toward the camp."
"First of all, we tried to stop them, but we saw some them were armed and our forces did not have enough people to stop them," he said.
When asked by a reporter why he was taking material from the base, one man, who refused to give his name, said: "This is war loot and we are allowed to take it."
On Thursday, Iraqi authorities had complained that the British withdrawal had caught them by surprise.
"British forces evacuated the military headquarters without coordination with the Iraqi forces," Jabbar said.
The British military rejected the assertion.
"The handover of the Camp Abu Naji was coordinated with the Amarah authorities 24 hours in advance," said spokesman Maj. Charlie Burbridge.
"It was understood that the governor was likely to use the camp as a police training camp," he said in an e-mail Thursday, adding that Iraqi forces had secured the base after the British soldiers left.
Burbridge said Thursday that British authorities could not comment on early reports of looting "because by that stage the camp was the property of the Maysan authorities and Iraqi Forces were in attendance."
I know it because the polls that they take show that young Britons are even dumber than young Americans. I know that the sense of "Britishness" is far further gone than our own patriotism is, and I know the British Empire fouled up the middle east so badly we will continue to pay for British arrogance and incompetence and Arabism for many decades to come.
The Brits, in '48? were supposed to leave various Taggart(fine, you spell it) forts in the control of the Jews. Instead, because of their Arabism, they snuck out in the middle of the night, after having forewarned the Arabs, who then promptly took control of them.
If you are one of the few Britons still pround to be one, then you still have to admit the truth of what I said. If you choose to get your panties in a twist, it's up to you.
As far as getting dirty is concerned, you have to do better than "I know you are but what am I".
The polls! Next you will tell me you believe in the tooth fairy, santa claus and that Iraq has WMD's.
Why should the British have done the Jews any favours by handing over the forts to them? While British troops were fighting the Nazis the Stern Gang were murdering British troops.
If you want to have a pop at Britain, I'll have a pop back at the US.
The British were obligated to hand them over to the Israeli's. Breach of contract.
If the Brits were not too busy blockading Jews from going to Israel, there wouldn't have been jews in the middle east shooting at them. Just another item in the saga of British Arabism. Notice how well it has paid off.
Don't worry, our politicians are almost as stupid.
They didn't just shoot at the British troops, they bombed, hung prisoners from olive groves, were they obliged to do that? breach of contract? like the world needs more lawyers.
Just for the record I'm no lover of the Arabs either, in fact I pretty much distrust everybody that isn't white, whose 1st language isn't english and can't tell a speyside malt from blended whisky.
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