The day our peaceful bit of Iraq went up in flames (UK in Basra)

[Barrett808]

The day our peaceful bit of Iraq went up in flames
Sep 24 2005
Mario Basini, Western Mail

AMONG the few crumbs of comfort offered by the chaos resulting from the invasion of Iraq was the sight of British troops peacefully policing the city of Basra. They provided, we all agreed, a reassuring contrast with the trigger- happy Americans in Baghdad and its surrounds.

There, each ham-fisted American attempt to flush out the insurgents and their leaders only seemed to escalate the violence. We could allow ourselves the cautious hope that the British model of co-operation and conciliation offered a blueprint for a peaceful and democratic Iraq.

Not any more.

Those hopes were destroyed by the vivid orange and black flames that engulfed the British soldiers desperately trying to escape their armoured vehicle in Basra on Monday night. The facts surrounding the British raid on the police station remain a matter of dispute. The British military authorities insist that our soldiers were on a mission to rescue two captured SAS soldiers from the clutches of a hostile militia.

That was flatly contradicted by the Iraqi Interior Minister, Bagir Solagh Jabr. He dismissed the notion that the SAS soldiers had been given to the militia, perhaps to be executed, perhaps to be used as barter in an exchange for the militia's captured leaders. The soldiers were being held by the police in a house which was an extension to the police station, he said.

The facts of the matter may be less significant than the level of disagreement between members of the Iraqi government and the British military. The notion of a new and reformed Iraqi administration working hand in hand with Britain and America to produce a democratic and prosperous country now looks hopelessly optimistic.

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