WAR: Basra Withdraws Cooperation Over British Raid

In reaction to the storming of a Basra police station to free two British SAS soldiers by British forces, the Iraqi city's governing council has voted to cease all cooperation with the British until three demands are met. The council seeks an apology, a guarantee that there will not be a repeat incident, and compensation for damage caused during the raid. Controversy and conflicting reports continue to surround the capture and extraction of the two soldiers, who were reported to be dressed in Arabic "disguises" and to have fired on Basran police during the course of their apprehension. Unconfirmed reports also emerged that the vehicle the soldiers were driving contained explosives.



A CNN article, including an interview with Mohammed Al-Ubadi, head of the Basra Governing Council, describes the council's demands a little differently, expanding the no-cooperation decision to cover "Multinational Forces", and including a demand that the soldiers be returned to Basran police custody.



Weapons and equipment found in the vehicle do not appear to show explosives:


The potential for worsening of the already-damaged Iraqi-Coalition relations should not be underestimated here. If the rumors of explosives in the vehicle spread, the situation may deteriorate quickly. And it is very interesting to note the tenacity with which the governing council is making demands of the British, possibly indicating that something is seriously amiss, or the events are not being reported as truthfully as they should in the Western media.

There still seem to be many unanswered questions surrounding this incident.

Related News Links:
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The two captured soldiers:


Protestors attack armored vehicles sent to extract the soldiers with rocks and firebombs:



Damage caused by British armored vehicles during the raid:

Nice post. While a lot of what happened is shrouded in confusion and obfuscation, I think that from what we know to be certain, Basra's demands are completely within legitimate bounds. An apology, a guarantee, and compensation are not too much to ask for in this case.

Think that'll happen? I don't know, I think they might get 1/3 - compensation.

Zip

Well it all depends on if what the MoD said is true...

If the Basra Police handed them over to part of a Militia, then why should we say sorry for breaking them out? If they were not handed over...well then we should.

However this event has just made it clear how easily Anti-British views can spring up, when the Iraqi 'Government' push the properganda through - as I am sure many of us could see the riots.

It's about time we move out of Iraq, things are not getting better and maybe the Civil War is what is needed since it'll likely happen as soon as we leave anyway...

Remember, though, this is the city of Basrah making these demands and fomenting anti-British sentiment, not the nation of Iraq. Basrah is somewhat of a rogue city, more aligned with al-Sadr than with Baghdad.

I remember reading somewhere that the Basrah police, who have been heavily infiltrated by the Mehdi army, drove around the city with loudspeakers urging the civilian Iraqis to riot against the Brits. And also, when the Iraqi gov't. demanded that the Basrah police turn the two captured Brits back over to the British command (which is the protocol), the Basrah police refused.

This is clearly al-Sadr causing trouble again. He should have been taken out last summer.

A few more pictures can be seen at the link below



www.timesonline.co.uk...

Originally posted by wecomeinpeace
Weapons and equipment found in the vehicle do not appear to show explosives

Eh?

Originally posted by Sauron

Take a nonpartisan moment to browse through the links Here, it's a tactic as old as society.

Well...most of us know that the SAS will NOT give up any information so they can get beat the hell out of as much as they want but to no avail. Also, with them being SAS operatives, we will do whatever we can to get them out of captivity. I wonder what sort of mission they were doing in Basra, it will most likely be intelligence gathering but who knows. I do know that certain SAS units can conduct military operations without government consent, and can act according to their own judgment. on a different note, those two guys in the pictures look like some hard bastards. I've been on an expedition and done mock SAS training and I didnt last five minutes so if i came up against one of these guys, i'd crap my keggs. I love the history of the SAS, and I hope that when their Iraqi operations become declassified, that we can get an insight into what they were up to!

An Iraqi court has issued arrest warrants for the two SAS soldiers. The British MoD has denied the legality of the warrants.



There is no way that these two soldiers will ever be handed back to the Iraqi police. This incident is far from over it seems.

Originally posted by twitchy

Take a nonpartisan moment to browse through the links Here, it's a tactic as old as society.

I'm no weapons expert, but that looks like a Light Anti-tank Weapon, which is a little different to the XinHua report that the vehicle was "packed with explosives". I'm trying not to jump to conclusions, even though I personally wouldn't be surprised at all if coalition forces were carrying out false flag operations in Iraq. If they can do it on their own soil to their own citizens, then what scruples would they have when it comes to Iraqis?

Something tells me we'll never know whether they were planning a false-flag op, or simply gathering intel "under cover". The report that they fired on police officers, allegedly killing one, points to them definitely being up to no good.