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British soldiers free two from Iraq jail
(AP)
Updated: 2005-09-20 10:38 According to the BBC, Defense officials insisted they had been talking to the
Iraqi authorities to secure the release of the men, but acknowledged a wall was
demolished as British forces tried to "collect" the two prisoners.
While the Shiite-dominated south of Iraq, where 8,500 British troops are
based, has been far quieter than Sunni regions to the north, Britons have come
under increasingly frequent attacks in recent weeks. The British military has
reported 96 deaths since the war began in 2003.
That compares with the deaths of 1,899 Americans who are stationed nearer the
violent insurgent regions around Baghdad and stretching west to the Syrian
border.
The latest violence in the oil city of Basra, 340 miles south of the capital,
began early Monday when local authorities reported arresting the two Britons,
described as special forces commandos dressed in Arab clothing, for allegedly
shooting two Iraqi policemen, one of whom died.
British armor then encircled the jail where the two Britons were held.
In a public humiliation, television cameramen from Arab satellite
broadcasters in the Persian Gulf were allowed to photograph the two men, clearly
Westerners who were by that time sitting on the floor in the jail in blue jeans
and T-shirts, their hands tied behind their backs.
One of the men had a bandage covering most of the top of his head, the other
had blood on his clothes. Television commentary identified them only as Britons.
A combo shows two British soldiers detained by
Iraqi police sitting in a police station in the southern Iraqi city of
Basra.[AFP] | Outside the jail, a melee broke out in the streets as angry demonstrators
attacked the encircling British armor with stones and Molotov cocktails. During
the chaos, one British soldier could be seen scrambling for his life from a
burning Warrior armored personnel carrier and the rock-throwing mob.
Press Association, the British news agency, reported that three British
soldiers were hurt during the violence, but said none of their injuries was
life-threatening.
After nightfall, 10 British armored vehicles returned to the jail, crashed
through walls and freed the two captives, witnesses said. An Associated Press
reporter saw the vehicles smash into the jail.
While witnesses and officials said the British raid used "tanks," it was not
clear whether the tracked vehicles were Challenger 2 Main Battle Tanks or
Warrior Infantry Fighting Vehicles, both in use by British forces in Iraq. The
Warrior seen earlier in the day was mounted with a 30 mm cannon.
In other violence in Basra, an Iraqi journalist working for The New York
Times was killed after men claiming to be police officers abducted him from his
home, the newspaper announced Monday. Fakher Haider, 38, was found dead in a
deserted area on the city's outskirts Monday after his abduction late Sunday.
This past summer, freelance journalist Steven Vincent wrote a column in the
Times accusing Basra police of being infiltrated by Shiite militiamen. Shortly
thereafter, on Aug. 2, Vincent was abducted at gunpoint and his body was
discovered that night on the side of the highway south of Basra. A senior
British official said Islamic militants — and not Iraqi police — probably killed
Vincent.
Elsewhere in Iraq on Monday, an estimated 3 million pilgrims — some carrying
signs reading "We welcome martyrdom" — jammed the holy city of Karbala for a
major Shiite festival in defiance of insurgent declarations of all-out sectarian
war.
In Baghdad, an Iraqi court sentenced one of Saddam Hussein's nephews to life
in prison for funding the country's violent insurgency and bomb-making after a
previously unannounced trial. It was the first known trial of any of the former
leader's family.
Militants waged more bloody attacks across the country Monday, killing 24
police and civilians and wounding 28.
But there were no attacks in Karbala, where security was so tight that
authorities had banned vehicles from entering for several days before the
holiday. Pilgrims were forced to pass through seven checkpoints inside the city
before reaching holy shrines.
In an Internet posting, al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
purportedly issued a new vow, promising he would not attack followers of radical
Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and other Shiite leaders opposed to Iraq's
U.S.-backed government.
Last Wednesday, after insurgent forces were routed from their stronghold in
the northern city of Tal Afar, al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born Sunni Arab, declared
all-out war on Iraq's majority Shiites.
But in the statement Monday on a Web site known for carrying extremist
Islamist material, al-Zarqawi now appeared set on trying to split the Shiite
community.
"Any Shiite group that condemns the government's crimes against the Sunnis in
Tal Afar, and which doesn't provide help to the occupation by any means, will be
exempted from the attacks of the mujahedeen," said the statement, which could
not be immediately authenticated.
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