Iraq turns on Britain over jail rescue raid
September 21, 2005 Edition 1
Alaa Habib
Basra: Iraq denounced British forces yesterday over the rescue of two undercover soldiers that could incite hostility to the
army in increasingly volatile southern Iraq.
British troops used tanks on Monday to burst into an Iraqi jail to rescue two soldiers held by police in Basra. The British commander there said he learnt they had been handed to a militia and ordered their rescue from a nearby house.
"It is a very unfortunate development that the British forces should try to release their forces the way it happened," Haider al-Ebadi, an adviser to Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, said in Baghdad.
The operation followed rioting that began, according to police and local officials, when the two soldiers fired on a police patrol. At least two Iraqis were killed in the violence.
There are several Shia militias in southern Iraq, including one loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who fiercely opposes the presence of foreign troops and has led uprisings elsewhere against the US military.
Iraqis say the heavily-armed militias act with impunity and are not answerable to the central government.
Tensions in Basra had risen on Sunday when British forces arrested two leading members of Sadr's Mehdi Army militia.
The tough British response will further strain ties between Iraqis and British troops, who had maintained relatively good relations with Basra's Shia population by pursuing a low-profile security policy, unlike their US allies elsewhere.
Unrest in the Shia south, where Iraq's biggest oil reserves are located, would increase pressure on the Iraqi government, already fighting a Sunni Arab insurgency further north.
British forces said their soldiers were in danger. "From an early stage I had good reason to believe the lives of the two soldiers were at risk," Brigadier John Lorimer, the British commander in Basra, said.
Ebadi said Iraqi security forces were justified in detaining the pair, who were "acting very suspiciously ... in civilian clothes in these tense times".
The raid could boost the popularity of Sadr.
"What the two Britons did was literally international terrorism," said Ali al-Yassiri, an aide to Sadr.
"If the British had condemned this, it would have calmed the situation, but instead they came and demanded them back, which sets a dangerous precedent."
Britain, which has 8 500 troops in Iraq, said on Sunday it would send more if necessary. British soldiers have not drawn as much fury as their US allies, but Iraqi police were clearly angered by the British raid.
Meanwhile, violence continued in the area controlled by US forces. Four US soldiers were killed by roadside bombs, the US military said yesterday, bringing the number of American soldiers killed since the 2003 invasion to 1 906.
