Uprising By Shiites in Basra Underway; British Pouring Artillery into City

Sky News Live Feed ^ | 03/25/03 | TonyInOhio

[TonyInOhio]

Just monitored on Sky News: embedded reporter says Shiites in Basra have begun, in his words, a "popular uprising" against the Saddam forces still in the city. British Army units are "pouring" artillery into the city (likely isolated areas) preparing to move in.

[ArGee]

They will be our friends for as long as it helps them only.

Isn't that true of all political alliances? Look at Germany and France. Our goal must be to make it help them for a long, long time.

Shalom.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Sounds like they couldn't wait any longer.

[mabelkitty]

Actually, their reporting has been ten times that of any other network.

United States of Jingo!!

[Dog]

We need Spec Ops in there to see what is going on....these people need to know we are coming....

Major Bob can't believe we are going to wait 8 to 12 hrs...

[Vets_Husband_and_Wife]

Just curious.. can you get Fox?

[LS]

Yah, you must be right. That 50 year war to defeat Stalinism/communism, which required us to balance plates all the way from Taiwain/China to Egypt/Israel to Latin America sure was a failure. Just looking at the Berlin Wall reminds me how "clueless" we were. Uh huh.

[goldstategop]

The Palestinians are Sunnis with the exception of a smattering of Christians. They identify with the nazi Baath philosophy even if they don't officially espouse it since its a means of directing their hatred at Jews and the same time it affirms their feeling of being "pure" Arabs. They probably look down the Shias and Kurds as much as they look down on the Jews as a lower form of life which is why they've embraced Saddam as a folk hero. After all he's done to his own subhumans what they would like to do to the Jews given the chance.

[dep]

Shi'a is divided into a number of denominations. First you have your Twelvers (mostly in Iran), then there are the Eleveners and the Seveners, who are my favorite group.

perhaps freeing them will help them embrace the easier system of singles, fives, 10s, 20s, 50s, and 100s.

their system is no doubt a relic of the british era.

dep

[Grampa Dave]

I dpn't know, but I think the Desert Rat SAS referred to here may be the Aussies.

[FBD]

RE: Aussie special ops in;

al naseria=
an Nasiryah

Do you have any info?

FRegards

[arasina]

And Fisk is muttering the Brits must have paid the Shias to rise up against Saddam.

My reply to Fisk would be, "So? Maybe they get more than Saddam's $14K for Allied POWs." Whatever gets the job done!

[TonyInOhio]

Sky New commentator says "everybody" has guns in Basrah.

Says footage last week showing people buying guns in Baghdad was misinterpreted - they weren't buying them to defend Saddam, but to help overthrow him when the time came.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

ANTI-SADDAM RIOTS IN BASRA

Rioting is taking place in Basra by locals opposed to Saddam Hussein, reports say.

Iraqi troops are reported to be firing on the rioters.

British forces are firing on Iraqi positions which are trying to crush the civilian uprising.

Reporter Richard Gaisford said intelligence from the city suggested that local people had indicated they would welcome the Allied forces but were in fear of Saddam loyalists.

"Now it seems they have had the courage to stand up to Saddam Hussein and his regime and they will be supported by British forces," Gaisford said.

More follows . . .

Last Updated: 17:53 UK, Tuesday March 25, 2003

[stands2reason]

WarSlut saying: Reports of "disturbances" inside Basra, "we" won't try to "guess" what that could be....essentially, there is MUCH MORE RESISTANCE AND DIFFICULTY in Basra now... A TOTAL 180 from FOX!!!!

[LS]

er, dude, hate to tell you but it WAS a chemical factory. It was very old, and had been shut down, but NO ONE denied that it was at one time a chem weapons factory.

[b4its2late]

Hey Saddam....... Shiit Happens.

[GraniteStateConservative]

We need something like this on FR-- maybe just taking the content directly from here? Is that possible? The ongoing daily threads don't have a way to catalog everything. You have to scroll through other things looking.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2883171.stm

[Centurion2000]

Iraq as a federal republic could work, and in a federation a new tradition of respecting minority rights may be started

I've heard that some Iraqis in America want to move back home so they can help form a government based on our Constitution for their homeland.

Would be a VERY interesting development if we started exporting that :)

[Fractal Trader]

.

[Fury]

Sky News.