BBC reporting: "militias" involved in Basra incident

[QuettaKid]

are basically the militias of the ruling party, allies with the police if you will. so.......uhm, why the urgency to get the 2 SAS guys?

[tocqueville]

1. Iran rules Basra

BASRA TURNING INTO MINI-IRAN
LA TIMES:

Physicians have been beaten for treating female patients. Liquor salesmen have been killed. Even barbers have faced threats for giving haircuts judged too short or too fashionable.

Religion rules the streets of this once cosmopolitan city, where women no longer dare go out uncovered.

Unmarked cars cruise the streets, carrying armed, plain-clothed enforcers of Islamic law. Who they are or answer to is unclear, but residents believe they are part of a battle for Basra's soul.

http://www.cosmiciguana.com/archives/2005/06/basra_turning_i.html

there are plenty of other accounts of the Iranian presence in Basra.
The Iranians consider Basra as historically theirs.

I bet the British came too close to the Iranians, and it wasn't the first time...

[oblivious]

2. According to CNN the two SAS guys were firing on civilians.

In other words, they had proof that these guys were among those trying to forment civil war by pretending they were Sunnis randomly targeting Shiite civilians. Wow! This is the end of the foreign forces in Iraq.

The official said two unknown gunmen in full Arabic dress began firing on civilians in central Basra, wounding several, including a traffic police officer. There were no fatalities, the official said.

The two gunmen fled the scene but were captured and taken in for questioning, admitting they were British Marines carrying out a "special security task," the official said.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/09/20/iraq.basra/