rayboyusmc
Senior Member
The Brits are having some of the same issues.
Have we fixed things, or just put a cork in the bottle that may explode at any time?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/24/iraq.iraq
Have we fixed things, or just put a cork in the bottle that may explode at any time?
A final all-out battle for Basra is seen as 'inevitable' as persistent violence looks set to keep British troops mired in southern Iraq longer than was expected.
An uneasy truce has been maintained between Iraqi security forces and Shia militia groups since Britain handed over control last December and moved to a base outside the city. Gordon Brown announced that the number of troops in Iraq would be cut from 4,700 to 2,500 by spring but that timetable appears increasingly optimistic.
Last week four British soldiers were injured, one seriously, by a roadside bomb during a night patrol and three contractors, two Indian and one Sri Lankan, died on the British base after it was hit by 19 rockets in 24 hours. Two private security company staff were injured after a visit to the Basra Children's Hospital. Negotiations for the release of a kidnapped British photojournalist continued without a breakthrough.
In an unusually frank analysis, Colonel Richard Iron, military mentor to the Iraqi commander General Mohan al-Furayji, said 'There's an uneasy peace between the Iraqi Security Forces [ISF] on the one hand and the militias on the other. There is a sense in the ISF that confrontation is inevitable. They are training and preparing for the battle ahead. General Mohan says that the US won the battle for Baghdad, the US is going win the battle for Mosul, but Iraqis will have to win the battle for Basra.'
Basra has been the scene of a violent power struggle between rival Shia factions, prominently Jaish al-Mahdi (JAM) led by the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who last week announced an extension to its six-month ceasefire. It has seen armed groups move into hospitals and university campuses to impose their religious and political ideology, bullying or even beheading women for going out to work or dressing inappropriately.
Asked who runs the city now, Iron, who has been in Basra since December, said: 'There's no one in charge. The unwritten rules of the game are there are areas where the army can and can't go and areas where JAM can and can't take weapons.'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/24/iraq.iraq