Iraq criticises British rescue in Basra (a call for Brits to leave Iraq)

[sabra]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ALI043847.htm

Iraq criticises British rescue in Basra

...

British troops used an armoured vehicle 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 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, told a news conference in Baghdad.

...

Residents of Basra, in a region with Iraq's biggest oil reserves, called on British troops to leave the country.

"It is unappropriate for any Iraqi to be insulted by a British or an American or any other occupier, we reject the occupying forces," said Abbas Jassim.

[defiant1]

1. WTF?

I guess I still don't understand why they needed to assault the jail.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Because the British Army is not on the same side as the Basra police

so asking them wouldn't, or didn't (according to the British government) work. Neither side trusts the other to see that justice would be done - the Basra police thought the men would be freed without a trial by the British, and the British thought they'd be beaten up or worse by the Iraqis.

Which means the British presence in Basra is really screwing things up.

[Ben Ceremos]

2. Another failure.

America has learned nothing from its folly and now the British are getting equally foolish. So much for "winning hearts and minds"...Occupation troops out of Iraq! Now!

[TahitiNut]

3. Occupying forces retrieved two "false flag" operatives.

The obscene corruption of the military occupation of Iraq is obvious to anyone with a brain.

[sabra]

4. more: Iraq probe into soldier incident

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4264614.stm

Iraq probe into soldier incident

Soldiers were forced to flee after their vehicles caught fire

The Iraqi government has launched an investigation into the events that led the British Army to storm a police station in search of two UK soldiers.
Both men were members of the SAS elite special forces, sources told the BBC's Richard Galpin in Baghdad.

The soldiers were arrested by police and then handed over to a militia group, the British Army says.

...

In a statement, Defence Secretary John Reid said the soldiers were being treated for minor injuries.

Mr Reid said: "We remain committed to helping the Iraqi government for as long as they judge that a coalition presence is necessary to provide security."

[Roland99]

6. So, just what does "sovereign" mean these days anyway?

[Karmakaze]

7. Spot the British lie...

I now do not believe anything the British say on this matter because they blatantly lied:

The British commander there said he learnt they had been handed to militia and ordered their rescue from a nearby house.

If that was the case, why did they storm THE JAIL??? Simple answer, because that is a blatant lie, and makes EVERYTHING else the Brits have said about this incident also suspect.

[daleo]

8. Maybe they were trying a real-life Monty Python skit

You know, where you break into a jail first, in order to get someone out of a nearby house. You break down the jail walls first with a tank, then mousehole through a bunch of buildings with explosive charges. This is known as the element of surprise.