Britten bestormen gevangenis Basra

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Britten bestormen gevangenis Basra

BAGDAD - Britse troepen hebben maandagavond de gevangenis in Basra bestormd waar de twee opgepakte Britten vastzaten, en hun landgenoten bevrijd. Dit heeft het Iraakse ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken laten weten.

Met tanks haalden de Britten muren van de gevangenis neer. Britse militairen stormden naar binnen om hun collega's te bevrijden, die eerder op de dag tijdens een undercovermissie waren opgepakt. Tientallen Iraakse medegevangenen maakten van de gelegenheid gebruik om ook te ontsnappen. Maandag arresteerden Iraakse autoriteiten twee Britten omdat zij een politiepatrouille beschoten. Beide arrestanten zouden 'undercover' werken. Na de arrestatie braken ernstige ongeregeldheden uit in de zuidelijke stad.

De twee mannen, die in Arabische kledij waren gehuld, weigerden met hun auto te stoppen bij een politiepost en openden het vuur op de agenten. Na het vuurgevecht werd het duo overmeesterd door de politie en weggevoerd. Op televisiebeelden was te zien dat ze gewond waren en een bandage op hun hoofd hadden.

Vermomde rebellen

De mannen op hun geheime missie moeten waarschijnlijk voorkomen voor een Iraakse rechter. Vermoedelijk hadden ze de instructie gekregen om door de rijden uit angst dat de politiemannen in werkelijkheid vermomde rebellen waren.

Gewonden

Na de arrestatie trok een woedende menigte richting het politiebureau waar de mannen vastzaten. Daarbij kwam het tot confrontaties met het Britse leger. Twee betogers kwamen om in het geweld en er vielen zeker vijftien gewonden.

Twee Britse tanks werden in brand gestoken. Een Britse militair die uit zijn tank klom werd geschopt en geslagen door omstanders.

Aanslagen

De spanning in het anders relatief rustige Basra is sinds zondag opgelopen nadat een hoge functionaris van het Mahdi-leger van de radicale sjiitische geestelijke Muqtada al-Sadr werd opgepakt. Het Britse leger verdenkt de man ervan dat hij het brein is achter een serie aanslagen.

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19 September 2005 22:37
Britten bestormen gevangenis Basra

BAGDAD Britse troepen hebben in Basra in Zuid-Irak de gevangenis bestormd en twee Britse militairen bevrijd die daar werden vastgehouden. Tientallen Iraakse gevangenen wisten ook te ontkomen nadat de troepen met tanks de muren van de gevangenis hadden neergehaald.

De twee Britten waren eerder op de dag opgepakt bij een undercoveractie. Ze zaten in Arabische kleren in een auto en weigerden te stoppen toen Iraakse politiemannen hen aanhielden.

Daarop ontstond een vuurgevecht waarbij de Britten gewond raakten. Ze werden naar de gevangenis gebracht, waar ze met veel machtsvertoon uit zijn bevrijd.

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UK soldiers freed from Basra jail

UK forces used tanks to break down the walls of a jail where two British soldiers were being held in the Iraqi city of Basra, according to reports. The soldiers' arrests had sparked clashes in the city in which British tanks came under attack and two civilians were reportedly killed. Basra's governor said the demolition was a "barbaric act of aggression".

British officials said the men were back in UK forces' custody but would not say how this had happened.

Civilians 'killed'

The BBC's Richard Galpin said it seemed more and more as if British forces had stormed the prison. Witnesses told the Associated Press that around 150 prisoners escaped at the same time. Earlier, two British tanks, sent to the police station where the soldiers are being held, were set alight in clashes.

Crowds of angry protesters hurled petrol bombs and stones injuring three servicemen and several civilians. TV pictures showed soldiers in combat gear, clambering from one of the flaming tanks and making their escape. A local council spokesman said two civilians were killed in the earlier clashes. Up to 15 civilians were also reported injured in the demonstrations.

Tensions have been running high in the city since the arrest of a senior figure in the Shia Mehdi Army by UK troops.

In other developments:

Nine Iraqi police and a civilian have died in suicide bombings between Baghdad and Karbala, where Shias are attending a major religious festival

The Iraqi government says a nephew of Saddam Hussein, Ayman Sabawi, has been sentenced to life in prison for funding Iraq's insurgency

An Iraqi reporter working for the New York Times, Fakher Haider, has been found dead in Basra

Iraq's Finance Minister, Ali Allawi, tells the UK's Independent newspaper that large-scale corruption in Iraq's ministries, particularly the defence ministry, has led to the theft of more than $1bn.

Civilian clothes

An Iraqi official in Basra said the British military had informed him the detained men were under cover soldiers. This has not been confirmed, but pictures of two soldiers being detained in police cells show the men wearing civilian clothes. The official said: "They were driving a civilian car and were dressed in civilian clothes when a shooting took place between them and Iraqi patrols.

"We are investigating and an Iraqi judge is on the case questioning them." BBC world affairs correspondent Richard Galpin said tension had been growing in Basra since the arrest on Sunday of a senior figure in the Shia Mehdi Army militia, suspected by the British military of being behind a series of attacks on troops.

His arrest drew crowds onto the streets of Basra demanding his release. Richard Galpin said British troops had since carried out further raids and made more arrests, sparking further unrest. Violence has been increasing in the British-controlled Basra region in recent months, with two soldiers killed by a roadside bomb on 5 September and a third on 11 September.

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^{A British soldier jumps from a burning tank which was set ablaze after a shooting incident in the southern Iraqi city of Basra September 19, 2005. Angry crowds attacked a British tank with petrol bombs and rocks in Basra on Monday after Iraqi authorities said they had detained two British undercover soldiers in the southern city for firing on police. Two Iraqis were killed in the violence, an Interior Ministry official said.}

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Op maandag 19 september 2005 23:23 schreef kLowJow het volgende:

[..]

Lijkt wel alsof ze bang waren dat de gevangen gelyncht zouden worden o.i.d.

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Op maandag 19 september 2005 23:25 schreef kLowJow het volgende:

[..]

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Op dinsdag 20 september 2005 00:16 schreef marcb1974 het volgende:
Het is allemaal niet waar hoor ik net op het nieuws (volgens de britten dan). De gevangenis is niet bestormd. De 2 gevangen zijn door middel van onderhandelingen vrij gekomen.

Dat ze liepen te gooien met molotovcocktails op tanks / pantservoertuigen was te zien. Dat ontkennen gaat niet echt werken.

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Op maandag 19 september 2005 22:57 schreef Ylias het volgende:
Volgens mij mag je in Engeland ook niet gevangen met zulke ramboacties bevrijden?? Maar ja, in Irak mag nu alles. Het is toch al zo een puinhoop. Maar natuurlijk, alles beter dan Saddam Hoessein.

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An MoD spokesman said: "Two British soldiers were detained and taken to an Iraqi police station. We then started negotiating with the Iraqi authorities for their release.

"We understand that the authorities ordered their release. Unfortunately they weren't released and we became concerned for their safety and as a result a Warrior infantry fighting vehicle broke down the perimeter wall in one place.

"Our guys went in there and searched it from top to bottom in order to go and recover our two soldiers who had been detained.

"They weren't there unfortunately but we did obtain intelligence that pointed to where they were. We then launched another operation to recover them, from a house in Basra."

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Tensions have been running high in the city since the arrest of a senior figure in the Shia Mehdi Army by UK troops.

But Colonel Tim Collins, the former commander of British troops in Iraq, described the Basra unrest as like a "busy night in Belfast".

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Op dinsdag 20 september 2005 08:49 schreef Strolie75 het volgende:
Je zou trouwens denken dat panzervoertuigen tegenwoordig wat beter tegen brandende benzine zouden kunnen. Zo werden Duitse tanks in WW2 al uitgeschakeld door de russen.

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Op dinsdag 20 september 2005 12:40 schreef Mikrosoft het volgende:
HAHA! Iraakse soevereiniteit, democratie, grondwet, verkiezingen, me reet!
Irak wordt geregeerd......eh.....onderdrukt door Washington en Londen.

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De zegsman stelde dat de Britse commandant in Basra tot geweld had besloten, omdat hij vreesde dat de twee Britten in handen waren gevallen van leden van een plaatselijke Iraakse militie. Die vrees bleek gegrond. De twee waren niet meer in de gevangenis, maar door militieleden meegenomen naar een huis in de buurt van de gevangenis.
Nu.nl

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Op dinsdag 20 september 2005 12:49 schreef Mikrosoft het volgende:
Tientallen Iraakse gevangenen zijn tijdens de actie ontsnapt. Er zaten vast wel terroristen tussen!
Foei Britten!

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The Islamists who police Basra's streets
By Steven Vincent The New York Times
MONDAY, AUGUST 1, 2005

BASRA, Iraq The British call it being "switched on" - a state of high morale and readiness, similar to what Americans think of as "gung-ho" attitude. During the 10 days I recently spent embedded with the British-led multinational force in this southern Iraqi city, I met many switched-on soldiers involved in what the British call "security sector reform." An effort to maintain peace while training Iraqis to handle their own policing and security, security sector reform is fundamental to the British-American exit strategy. As one British officer put it, "The sooner the locals assume their own security, the sooner we go home."

From that perspective, the strategy appears successful. Particularly in terms of the city police officers, who are proving adept at the close-order drills, marksmanship and proper arrest techniques being drilled into them by their foreign instructors. In addition, police salaries are up, the officers have shiny new patrol cars, and many sport snazzy new uniforms. Better yet, many of the new Iraqi officers seem switched-on themselves. "We want to serve our country" is a repeated refrain.

From another view, however, security sector reform is failing the very people it is intended to serve: average Iraqis who simply want to go about their lives. As has been widely reported of late, Basran politics (and everyday life) is increasingly coming under the control of Shiite religious groups, from the relatively mainstream Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq to the bellicose followers of the rebel cleric Moktada al-Sadr. Recruited from the same population of undereducated, underemployed men who swell these organizations' ranks, many of Basra's rank-and-file police officers maintain dual loyalties to mosque and state.

In May, the city's police chief told a British newspaper that half of his 7,000-man force was affiliated with religious parties. This may have been an optimistic estimate: One young Iraqi officer told me that "75 percent of the policemen I know are with Moktada al-Sadr - he is a great man." And unfortunately, the British seem unable or unwilling to do anything about it.

The fact that the British are in effect strengthening the hand of Shiite organizations is not lost on Basra's residents.

"No one trusts the police," one Iraqi journalist told me. "If our new ayatollahs snap their fingers, thousands of police will jump." Mufeed al-Mushashaee, the leader of a liberal political organization called the Shabanea Rebellion, told me that he felt that "the entire force should be dissolved and replaced with people educated in human rights and democracy."

Unfortunately, that is precisely what the British aren't doing. Fearing to appear like colonial occupiers, they avoid any hint of ideological indoctrination. In my time with them, not once did I see an instructor explain such basics of democracy as the politically neutral role of the police in a civil society. Nor did I see anyone question the alarming number of religious posters on the walls of Basran police stations. When I asked British troops if the security sector reform strategy included measures to encourage cadets to identify with the national government rather than their neighborhood mosque, I received polite shrugs: not our job, mate.

The results are apparent. At the city's university, for example, self-appointed monitors patrol the campuses, ensuring that women's attire and makeup are properly Islamic. "I'd like to throw them off the grounds, but who will do it?" a university administrator asked me. "Most of our police belong to the same religious parties as the monitors."

Similarly, the director of Basra's maternity hospital, Mohammad Nasir, told me that he frequently catches staff members pilfering equipment to sell to private hospitals, but hesitates to call the police: "How do I know what religious party they are affiliated with, and what their political connection is to the thieves?"

It is particularly troubling that sectarian tensions are increasing in Basra, which has long been held up as the brightest spot of the liberated Iraq. "Are the police being used for political purposes?" asked Jamal Khazal Makki, the head of the Basra branch of the Sunni-dominated Islamic Party. "They arrest people and hold them in custody, even though the courts order them released. Meanwhile, the police rarely detain anyone who belongs to a Shiite religious party."

An Iraqi police lieutenant, who for obvious reasons asked to remain anonymous, confirmed to me the widespread rumors that a few police officers are perpetrating many of the hundreds of assassinations - mostly of former Baath Party members - that take place in Basra each month. He told me that there is even a sort of "death car": a white Toyota Mark II that glides through the city streets, carrying off-duty police officers in the pay of extremist religious groups to their next assignment.

Meanwhile, the British stand above the growing turmoil, refusing to challenge the Islamists' claim on the hearts and minds of police officers. That detachment angers many Basrans. "The British know what's happening but they are asleep, pretending they can simply establish security and leave behind democracy," said the police lieutenant who had told me of the assassinations. "Before such a government takes root here, we must experience a transformation of our minds."

In other words, real security reform requires psychological as well as physical training. Unless the British-led force in Basra includes in its strategy for security sector reform some basic lessons in democratic principles, the city risks falling further under the sway of Islamic extremists and their Western-trained police enforcers.

(Steven Vincent, the author of ''In the Red Zone: A Journey Into the Soul of Iraq,'' is writing a book about Basra.)

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August 3, 2005
American Journalist Is Shot to Death in Iraq
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 2:43 a.m. ET

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- An American freelance journalist was found dead in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, the U.S. Embassy said Wednesday.

Police said Steven Vincent had been shot multiple times after he and his Iraqi translator were abducted at gunpoint hours earlier.

''I can confirm to you that officials in Basra have recovered the body of journalist Steven Vincent,'' said embassy spokesman Pete Mitchell. ''The U.S. Embassy is working with British military and local Iraqi officials in Basra to determine who is responsible for the death of this journalist. Our condolences go out to the family.''

Iraqi police in Basra said Vincent was abducted along with his female translator at gunpoint Tuesday evening. The translator, Nour Weidi, was seriously wounded.

Vincent and the translator were seized Tuesday afternoon by five gunmen in a police car as they left a currency exchange shop, police Lt. Col. Karim al-Zaidi said.

Vincent's body was discovered on the side of the highway south of Basra later. He had been shot in the head and multiple times in the body, al-Zaidi said.

Police said Vincent, a writer who had been living in New York, had been staying in Basra for several months working on a book about the history of the city.

In an opinion column published July 31 in The New York Times, Vincent wrote that Basra's police force had been heavily infiltrated by members of Shiite political groups, including those loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Vincent quoted an unidentified Iraqi police lieutenant as saying that some police were behind many of the assassinations of former Baath Party members that have taken place in Basra.

''He told me that there is even a sort of ''death car'' -- a white Toyota Mark II that glides through the city streets, carrying off-duty police officers in the pay of extremist religious groups to their next assignment,'' he wrote.

Vincent was also critical of the British military, which is responsible for security in Basra, for turning a blind eye to abuses of power by Shiite extremists in the city.

He was the author of ''In the Red Zone: A Journey Into the Soul of Iraq,'' a recently published book that was an account of life in a post-Saddam Iraq.

Vincent's Web site describes him as a freelance investigative journalist and art critic whose work had appeared in major newspapers and magazines including the Wall Street Journal, Harper's, and the Christian Science Monitor.

According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, as of June 28, at least 45 journalists and 20 media support workers have been killed while covering the war in Iraq since March 2003. Insurgent actions are responsible for the bulk of the deaths.

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Iraq: Brit Soldiers Dressed As Arabs In car Packed With Explosives Captured

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-09/19/content_3514065.htm

Iraqi police detained two British soldiers in civilian clothes in the southern city Basra for firing on a police station on Monday, police said.

"Two persons wearing Arab uniforms opened fire at a police station in Basra. A police patrol followed the attackers and captured them to discover they were two British soldiers," an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua.

The two soldiers were using a civilian car packed with explosives, the source said.

He added that the two were being interrogated in the police headquarters of Basra.

The British forces informed the Iraqi authorities that the two soldiers were performing an official duty, the source said. British military authorities said they could not confirm the incident but investigations were underway.

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Sep. 19, 2005 - In a major show of force, British soldiers used tanks to break down the walls of the central jail in this southern city late Monday and freed two Britons, allegedly undercover commandos, who had been arrested on charges of shooting two Iraqi policemen.

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Op dinsdag 20 september 2005 20:12 schreef BaajGuardian het volgende:
sorry maar ik ga hier even iets pasten.
want ik heb even niet de energie in mn vingers om het allemaal te gaan overtiepen.
....
dat westerse regeringen al tijden zelf aanslagen uitvoeren om de zogenaamde vijand erger te doen overkomen , tja ...bittere realiteit.

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Op dinsdag 20 september 2005 20:16 schreef sp3c het volgende:
nee volgens mij stonden die militairen op het punt gelynched te worden door een angry mob, daarom zijn ze bevrijd, niet omdat er complotten zijn tov de regering of iets

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Op dinsdag 20 september 2005 20:27 schreef Monidique het volgende:
Net zeiden ze trouwens in het NOS Journaal dat minister Reid de actie goedkeurde, omdat Irak geen Britten mag vasthouden. Als dat waar is, dan toont dat wel mooi aan hoe soeverein het land is. Kan het de Britten overigens niet kwalijk nemen, dat ze deze mannen bevrijd hebben.

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Op dinsdag 20 september 2005 20:15 schreef Strolie75 het volgende:
Chinees persbureau. Lekker onafhankelijk, die laten geen kans benut om een westerse democratie af te zeiken.

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Op maandag 19 september 2005 22:57 schreef Ylias het volgende:
die eerder op de dag tijdens een undercovermissie waren opgepakt.

even lekker speculeren