Report finds Basra problems bode ill for U.S. Iraq strategy
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Violence and infighting among Shi'ites in Basra are a warning that a last ditch U.S. plan to improve security in Iraq is badly flawed, a think-tank said in a report.
"The answer to Iraq's horrific violence cannot be an illusory military surge that aims to bolster the existing political structure and treats the dominant political parties as partners," said the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.
The report, issued late on Monday, said that Operation Sinbad, in which British forces tried to tackle armed militias and support Iraqi security forces in the southern oil-rich city of Basra, offered important lessons to learn from.
The current U.S. strategy in Baghdad -- a four-month-old offensive aimed at ridding neighbourhoods of gunmen, deploying soldiers to hold the areas and then reviving economic activity -- appears similar to the British plan launched last September.
Sinbad initially helped calm Basra, Iraq's second largest city and its economic hub, but violence has since mounted and British forces have come under increasing attack there.
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