TIMELINE :: Basra Police Station – Jail Break – MoD Lies ¶ IRAN Crusade

British Storm Basra Jail with Tanks

Juan Cole has constructed a timeline of events leading up to the unrest in Basra.

“Anyway, here’s my timeline for what happened.”

September 5:

The BBC reports that “Fusilier Donal Anthony Meade -20- from Plumstead in south east London, and Fusilier Stephen Robert Manning -22- from Erith in Kent, were killed by a roadside bomb on 5 September 2005 . . . They had been travelling in a convoy which was hit about five miles east of Shaibah airbase, in Basra province.”

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The British appear to have believed that this attack was the work of Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army.

The BBC reports, “Major Matthew Bacon was killed in an attack in Basra, in southern Iraq, on 11 September 2005 when a roadside bomb struck the armoured vehicle he was travelling.”

So the British are facing increased casualties and concerted attacks in early September. Convinced that the attacks are coming from Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army, they finally move against that group on Sunday.

September 18:

FURTHER ON AL-SADR AIDE’S ARREST IN BASRA

IRAQ – MULTI-NATIONAL DIVISION SOUTHEAST NAMES TERROR SUSPECTS:

In the early hours of Sept. 18, an operation was conducted by Multi National Division – South-East, in the districts of Al Jameat and Tuninah in Basra. This operation was the result of an ongoing Multi-National Force investigation that identified individuals believed to be responsible for organizing terrorist attacks against Coalition forces, resulting in the deaths of nine members of Coalition forces in the past two months in Basra. The operation resulted in three individuals being detained.

Among those arrested are Sheik Ahmed Majid Farttusi and Sayyid Sajjad, known leaders of the Mahdi Militia in Basra.

“I am well aware that the people that we have arrested are prominent individuals in Basra,” commented Brigadier John Lorrimer, British Army commander of the 12th Mechanized Brigade in Basra. “But let me make it absolutely clear: we have acted against them as individuals, not as members of any particular organization. As the people of Basra you are entitled to your own religious beliefs and political opinions. Those are not matters for MNF. We will not, however, tolerate terrorism and will act against it whenever we can.”

There were immediate protests by Sadrists in Basra, who barricaded the streets in the center of the city. AP reported that “200 militiamen with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades set fire to tires as they barricaded main streets”. But then Muqtada’s envoys dispersed them, asking them to stand down.

SADR PROTESTS IN BASRA

Crowds of protesters, including members of the Mehdi Army, march on a Spanish garrison near Kufa April 4, 2004.   [Reuters]

Mehdi Army militiamen were seen deployed inside and on the rooftop of the governor’s office in the British-controlled port city of Basra, alongside policemen who had been inside the building when it was overtaken.

British Army Storms Basra Jail to Free 2 Soldiers From Arrest

The New York Times – by SABRINA TAVERNISE

BAGHDAD Sept. 19 — Two British soldiers working under cover were arrested Monday in the southern city of Basra and then freed as a British armored vehicle blasted through the wall of their jail after an angry crowd began rioting outside, an Interior Ministry official said.

The official said that the soldiers were undercover officers dressed as Iraqis and that Iraqi police officers had arrested them after the men fired at a traffic police officer.

A British military spokesman in Basra confirmed that “two U.K. military personnel” had been detained early on Monday “in a shooting incident” and that troops had used an armored fighting vehicle “to gain entry” to the police station to release them. He said that more than one vehicle had been in the area and that the police inside the station had refused to obey orders from the Interior Ministry to release the men.

The Great Escape ◊ posted by lenin

The MoD’s story changes as rapidly as that collection of great minds can manage. Initially, a Ministry of Defense spokesman asked about the storming of an Iraqi prison by UK tanks (apparently backed up by helicopters), said:

We have not had confirmation of the full details of this.
We’ve heard nothing to suggest we stormed the prison.
We understand there were negotiations.

This morning, the BBC reports:

MoD officials said the men were being handed over to the British when local militants intervened and attempted to snatch them.

Soldiers forming a cordon around the police station became involved, and a wall was demolished by a British tank as they struggled to “collect” the men, the MoD said.

What the fuck? Alright, never mind, forget it. You try and figure out how the intervention of ‘local militants’ made it necessary to smash the walls down.

At any rate, if there were negotiations, the officials in Basra seem to know nothing of it. The governor describes the jail-break as a “barbaric act”. The Iraqi Interior Ministry’s account also differs slightly from the British one: they say six tanks were used to break down the walls and ‘rescue’ the two men from the jail.

Pull back a second. The background to this story is, apparently, that a number of members of the Mahdi Army were arrested on Sunday and tossed in the hoosegow. Subsequently, al-Sadr’s affiliates made a ‘show of force’ by blocking some roads, holding demonstrations and demanding the release of their confederates. And when – oh, hang on, BBC Breakfast has a statement from the British Army in Basra, and it appears they have changed their account yet again:

Brigadier John Lorimer says that the Iraqi authorities had failed to hand over the two prisoners despite their best efforts to achieve this and were instead going to hand them over to insurgents.

So, they did storm the bloody prison after all? Ah, the sweet smell of official lies.

Anyway, and when these two undercover servicemen, whom the Mirror are describing as ‘SAS’ this morning (oh, please), were then approached by Iraqi policemen because they looked suspicious, they shot the policemen and were then captured. Locals then attacked British tanks.

[…]

As in “doesn’t the failure of the occupation show that we can’t leave just yet?” Oh yeah – imagine what would happen if we left.

There’d be death squads, extra-judicial executions, sectarian violence, mass murder, torture and rape. That would be awful.  

Stand-off Basra :: Iraqi vs UK Forces –
Riots After UK Soldiers Arrested ¶ Updated!

BREAKING NEWS

JAIL BREAK –
UK USE TANKS TO ENTER POLICE COMPOUND

BBC News – UK soldiers ‘storm’ Basra prison
Yahoo News: Brits Use Tanks in Jailbreak.

Contrary statement from Governor of Basra ::
“Act of barbaric aggression”.

“UK Soldiers Have Been Released” Min of Defence
The official statement from the British Ministery of Defence (MoD) has just been read on BBC News:
After negotiations with local authorities …
A wall may have been knocked down …

Several articles have already turned the story against the angry Iraqis who fought the British tanks as they demolished the jail wall, painting them as aggressive Shia militia attacking the doe-eyed, innocent troops responding to the concern that their comrades were held by religious fanatics.

A photograph of a troop on fire comes complete with commentary that the vehicles were under attack during a “bid to recover arrested servicemen” that were possibly undercover. All criminal elements of British treachery are downplayed, the car’s explosive cache is never mentioned and the soldiers who instigated the affair are made victims of an unstable country they are defending.


IAEA Nuclear Issue

Hilariously, all of this spin has already landed Iran at the top of the blame game. Because when the war combine botches its own clandestine terrorist acts, what better way to recover than by painting the soulless, freedom-hating country you’d love to invade next as the culprit? In a way, I almost admire the nerve of officials who are able to infer that Basra’s riots have nothing to do with fake insurgent bombing raids and everything to do with religious ties to a foreign country. It’s a sheer unmitigated gall that flies in the face of logic and reason.

“The Iranians are careful not to be caught,” a British official said as the UK threatened to refer Iran to the UN Security Council for sanctions. Too bad the British aren’t! Maybe then they’d be able to complete their black-ops mission without looking like complete fools in the process!

– Norgeson

● Sept. 14 – Iran IS Next Folks ◊ by alohaleezy
● Sept. 19 – MoD spokesman :: red infrared bombs from Iran

ASKING SERIOUS QUESTIONS – Australian TV News

The only outlet to ask any serious questions, was Australian TV news which, according to one viewer, gave “credibility to the ‘conspiracy theorists’ who have long claimed many terrorist acts in Iraq are, in fact, being initiated and carried out by US, British and Israeli forces”.

Brigadier General Mohammad-Baqer Zolqadr, the deputy commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), told a gathering of senior officials, that the U.S. needs those attacks to “justify the continuation of its military presence in Iraq”:

“The Americans blame weak and feeble groups in Iraq for insecurity in this country. We do not believe this and we have information that the insecurity has its roots in the activities of American and Israeli spies,” Zolqadr said.

“Insecurity in Iraq is a deeply-rooted phenomenon. The root of insecurity in Iraq lies in the occupation of this country by foreigners”.

“If Iraq is to become secure, there will be no room for the occupiers”.

BAGHDAD, Iraq Sept. 21 — About 500 civilians and policemen rallied today in Basra and denounced “British aggression” following London’s decision to use force to free two of its soldiers being held by Iraqi police.

The demonstrators in Basra, which included police and civilians waving pistols and AK47s, shouted “No to occupation!” and carried banners condemning “British aggression and demanding the freed soldiers be tried in an Iraqi court as “terrorists.”

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An Iraqi policemen holds up a pistol during a protest in Basra, Iraq, in which about 500 people demanded an apology for attack by British forces on the jail where two British nationals were held captive.  AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani

Clashes between British forces and Iraqi police have killed five civilians, including two who died of their injuries Wednesday in a hospital.

Interior Minister Bayan Jabr disputed the British version of events. He told the BBC the two soldiers never left police custody or the jail, were not handed to militants, and that the British army acted on a “rumor” when it stormed the jail.

After British armored vehicles stormed the jail to free two commandos, National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie said the operation was “a violation of Iraqi sovereignty.”