Posted on 04/19/2003 7:22:09 PM PDT by Indy Pendance
FIFTY-seven Iraqis have been arrested after an audacious attempt to rob a branch of the national bank in Basra, a British army officer said.
The group managed to blast open one of six vaults in the bank with grenades which they had attached to one-metre thick concrete walls after breaking in through the basement of the building, Lieutenant William Horley of the Irish Guards said.
But the sound of the blasts alerted British troops in a nearby base and "we caught 57 red-handed", said Horley.
"They had bin bags full of notes, pressed and bound up in cellophane."
Most of Basra's banks were raided in the aftermath of the city's fall to British troops nearly two weeks ago but the manager of the central bank had been confident that security measures were adequate to prevent an attack on his establishment, said Horley.
British tanks have now been placed outside the branch in a bid to prevent any further bid to storm the bank.
Money and gold bullion in the remaining vaults is now likely to be transferred to a more secure location.
The officer said pools of blood had been found in the basement, possibly indicating that shots had been exchanged between rival robbers, but no bodies or injured people were found at the scene.
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