Bekijk Volledige Versie : 2 Britse soldaten verkleed als Arabieren beschieten Iraakse politie
BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Angry crowds attacked a British tank with petrol bombs and rocks in Basra on Monday after Iraqi authorities detained two British undercover soldiers in the southern city for firing on police.
Reuters photographs showed a British soldier engulfed by flames as he scrambled out of a burning tank.
Two Iraqis were killed in the violence, an Interior Ministry official said.
"We can confirm that a shooting incident involving U.K. military personnel has taken place which is currently being investigated," a British military spokesman said in a statement.
"Two U.K. military personnel have been detained and we are liaising with the Iraqi authorities on this matter."
An Iraqi official in Basra said the British military had informed him the detained men were undercover soldiers.
"They were driving a civilian car and were dressed in civilian clothes when a shooting took place between them and Iraqi patrols," the official told Reuters.
"We are investigating and an Iraqi judge is on the case questioning them."
UNDERCOVER
Reuters photographs showed one of the two detained men with a bandage on his head. Police and Interior Ministry officials said the men were wearing traditional Arab headdresses for their undercover mission.
Mohammed al-Abadi, an official in the Basra governorate, said the two men looked suspicious to police.
"A policeman approached them and then one of these guys fired at him. Then the police managed to capture them," Abadi told reporters.
"They refused to say what their mission was. They said they were British soldiers and (suggested) to ask their commander about their mission," he added.
Reuters Television footage showed the tank trying to reverse away from trouble after it came under attack, apparently from petrol bombs as a crowd gathered around it.
Within moments flames emerged from the top of the tank, after a furious crowd hurled petrol bombs, burning furniture and tyres at it.
One soldier climbed out of the vehicle's hatch and jumped clear of it, as the crowd pelted him with stones.
A witness said people drove through the streets of Basra with loudhailers demanding that the undercover Britons remain in detention and be sent to jail.
Basra, capital of the Shi'ite south, has been relatively stable compared with central Iraq, where Sunni Arab insurgents have killed thousands of Iraqi and U.S. troops, officials and civilians with suicide attacks, roadside bombs and shootings.
The main ally of the United States, Britain said on Sunday it would if necessary increase the number of troops in Iraq, where it has about 8,500 soldiers.
(Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny in Baghdad)
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-09-19T164541Z_01_YUE946529_RTRUKOC_0_UK-IRAQ-BRITONS.xml
waterfiets
19-09-05, 21:25
"Britse soldaten gestenigd door woedende menigte" had ook de topic titel kunnen zijn. Het is op zijn zachtst gezegd nogal een verwarrend artikel omdat niet duidelijk is of die Britten nu in die tank reden om in een gewone burger auto.
Geplaatst door waterfiets
"Britse soldaten gestenigd door woedende menigte" had ook de topic titel kunnen zijn. Het is op zijn zachtst gezegd nogal een verwarrend artikel omdat niet duidelijk is of die Britten nu in die tank reden om in een gewone burger auto.
De Britse soldaten die werden opgepakt waren undercover en zaten niet in een tank. De rellen onstonden later, mensen die boos waren dat die Britten een Iraakse politie agent om het leven hebben gebracht.
Geplaatst door Spoetnik
De Britse soldaten die werden opgepakt waren undercover en zaten niet in een tank. De rellen onstonden later, mensen die boos waren dat die Britten een Iraakse politie agent om het leven hebben gebracht.
Zoals ik het begrijp is er niemand dood, 1 van die 2 Britten heeft op de politieauto geschoten met daarin de mensen die hen gingen arresteren.
Vervolgens (bron: BBC Worldservice) stuurde de commandant 3 tanks naar de gevangenis om de 2 te bevrijden. 1 tank ramde de gevangenismuur. Volgens de Britse commandant had de politie de 2 overgedragen aan een militie, en waren ze dus niet meer in hechtenis, maar gegijzeld. Ik vind het een vaag verhaal. Het GB ministerie beweert dat de gevangenismuur 'per ongeluk' eraan ging bij het manoeuvreren, Irakezen vinden het flauwekul. 2 muren geramd.
Vaag allemaal. Britten hebben een hoop uit te leggen. Irakese politie in Basra is wel gepolitiseerd.
Geplaatst door mark61
Zoals ik het begrijp is er niemand dood,
Oh. De irakisch nu een beetje kennende zit dat ze wrsl dwars.
Geplaatst door mark61
Zoals ik het begrijp is er niemand dood, 1 van die 2 Britten heeft op de politieauto geschoten met daarin de mensen die hen gingen arresteren.
1 van de politie agenten die werden beschoten door de undercover SAS mannen is gedood:
In the confrontation that followed, shots were fired, and two Iraqi policemen were shot, one of whom later died. The Iraqi authorities blamed the men, reported to be undercover commandos, and arrested them.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article313848.ece
Bij de rellen die later volgenden werden nog eens 2 Iraqi's gedood:
In the rioting that ensued, British control of the city, in the Shia-dominated south of Iraq, began to look seriously under threat. Two Iraqis were reported dead in the rioting, with 15 Iraqis reported injured, along with three British soldiers.
~Panthera~
20-09-05, 15:09
Geplaatst door Spoetnik
1 van de politie agenten die werden beschoten door de undercover SAS mannen is gedood:
In the confrontation that followed, shots were fired, and two Iraqi policemen were shot, one of whom later died. The Iraqi authorities blamed the men, reported to be undercover commandos, and arrested them.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article313848.ece
Bij de rellen die later volgenden werden nog eens 2 Iraqi's gedood:
In the rioting that ensued, British control of the city, in the Shia-dominated south of Iraq, began to look seriously under threat. Two Iraqis were reported dead in the rioting, with 15 Iraqis reported injured, along with three British soldiers.
mooi :moe: geen pics van de twee, denk ik, of namen ?
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/rdonlyres/5B9D68F9-E629-41D5-BD68-D1DE59211CF3/92519/F7863E5984A54C5FBE176A30F734FFE0.jpg
Geplaatst door Spoetnik
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/rdonlyres/5B9D68F9-E629-41D5-BD68-D1DE59211CF3/92519/F7863E5984A54C5FBE176A30F734FFE0.jpg
dus dit zijn zarkawi's mannen?
Van BBC world news:
UK soldiers 'freed from militia'
Soldiers were forced to flee after their vehicles caught fire
Enlarge Image
Two British soldiers whose imprisonment prompted UK troops to storm a Basra police station were later rescued from militia, the Ministry of Defence says.
Brigadier John Lorimer said it was of "deep concern" the men detained by police ended up held by Shia militia.
Basra governor Mohammed al-Waili said the men - possibly working undercover - were arrested for allegedly shooting dead a policeman and wounding another.
The arrests sparked unrest in which Army vehicles were attacked.
In a statement, Brig Lorimer said that under Iraqi law the soldiers should have been handed over to coalition authorities, but this failed to happen despite repeated requests.
"I had good reason to believe that the lives of the soldiers were at risk and troops were sent to the area of Basra near the police station to help ensure their safety by providing a cordon," Brig Lorimer said.
British Army vehicles under attack during bid to recover arrested servicemen
In pictures
"As shown on television these troops were attacked with firebombs and rockets by a violent and determined crowd.
"Later in the day, however, I became more concerned about the safety of the two soldiers after we received information that they had been handed over to militia elements."
After troops broke into the police station to confirm the men were not there, they staged a rescue from a house in Basra, said the commanding officer of 12 Mechanised Brigade in Basra.
Brig Lorimer added: "It is of deep concern that British soldiers held by the police should then end up being held by the militia. This is unacceptable."
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BBC Defence Correspondent Paul Wood said local police revealed the whereabouts of the two men after the station was stormed.
"At the point of a 30mm cannon - no shots were fired - but at the point of this cannon, the Iraqi police gave away the location of where the two British soldiers had been taken," he said.
Vehicles set alight
A Ministry of Defence (MoD) spokesman earlier said a Warrior armoured vehicle had broken down the perimeter wall at the police station.
Mr al-Waili said more than 10 vehicles and helicopters had been used in an operation that was a "barbaric act of aggression".
We remain committed to helping the Iraqi government for as long as they judge that a coalition presence is necessary
Defence Secretary John Reid
Timeline: UK troops in Iraq
How events unfolded
The MoD denied witness reports to the Associated Press that about 150 prisoners escaped after the demolition of the wall.
Two British armoured vehicles earlier sent to the police station were set alight in clashes.
TV pictures showed crowds of angry protesters hurling petrol bombs and stones, and soldiers in combat gear clambering from one of the flaming vehicles and making their escape.
Reports said two Iraqi civilians were killed and three soldiers injured in the clashes.
In a statement, Defence Secretary John Reid said the soldiers were being treated for minor injuries.
'Police infiltrated'
The BBC's Paul Wood said none of Basra's 20,000 police officers had helped the UK troops "partly because of reticence by their commanders, partly because, I am afraid, they have been infiltrated by these militants".
He added: "Now we are in the situation where presumably revenge will be sought by relatives of the dead Iraqis - and our allies in the police, I think there has been a complete breakdown of trust and it's going to be very difficult for British troops to call on them."
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."
British officials would not say if the two men were working undercover
But Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Sir Menzies Campbell said: "It is hard to see how relations between the British military and the civilian Iraqi authorities in Basra will ever be the same again.
"This is bound to be seen as a humiliation by many Iraqis - something the insurgents will use to their advantage."
Conservative shadow foreign secretary Michael Ancram called on ministers to explain who would decide when to leave Iraq and on what basis.
Colonel Tim Collins, a former commander of British troops in Iraq, said Monday's violence did not represent a breakdown of law and order in Basra, which was still a safer city than Baghdad.
On Tuesday a suicide car bombing in the northern city of Mosul killed a US diplomatic security guard and three US private contractors, according to American officials.
The US military also announced that four of its soldiers attached to the Marines were killed in two roadside bombings in the western city of Ramadi on Monday.
~Panthera~
20-09-05, 15:21
Geplaatst door Spoetnik
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/rdonlyres/5B9D68F9-E629-41D5-BD68-D1DE59211CF3/92519/F7863E5984A54C5FBE176A30F734FFE0.jpg
Thanks !