Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Basra council cuts ties with UK troops following police station raid
Security, Politics
The British military’s demolition of a Basra police station that they claim was used as a base for death squads has caused a political backlash, creating possible complications for the British campaign to purge the southern port city’s notoriously corrupt police force. However, in an environment where militias, criminal gangs, political parties and factions within the police force all overlap in a patchwork of often competing alliances, it is difficult to tell exactly how widespread is the opposition to the British move against what they called a rogue police unit.
Several local leaders, including the head of the city council and a Basra police commander, have condemned Monday’s raid. Mohammed al-Ibadi, provincial council chairman, said the council had decided to cut off ties with British forces pending an explanation of why they destroyed an “Iraq government building flying the Iraqi flag” and removed detainees he described as suspected terrorists. But a British military spokesman said it was unaware of any boycott by the full council, and some local officials including the governor offered their support for the operation, which involved Iraqi as well as British forces. Over 1,000 British troops participated in the raid that culminated in the demolition of the Jamiat police station.
A British spokesman said 127 prisoners were discovered in the basement, some of them with their kneecaps shot off, their hands or feet crushed, or with cigarette or electrical burns. He said the police station was a base of a criminal gang associated with the local Serious Crimes Unit, which had access to weaponry, vehicles and police intelligence used in death squad activity. He said the gang might have targeted competitors, as well as “anyone they did not like the look of or [who] had crossed them in some way”. British officials also say that the unit was associated with the capture of two British soldiers in September 2005, which precipitated a raid on Jamiat station to free them. It was also said to be involved in the abduction and murder of 17 police employees in October.
Basra citizens frequently complain about their police force, which many say is the product of a local authority that is fractured between several large Shia Islamist factions, including the Fadila party, the radical Sadrist movement, and the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, plus a handful of smaller ones. In the absence of clear dominance by one faction or the other, each has cultivated its allies within the police force.
Some citizens have praised Mr Maliki for taking a firm hand against local corruption. Militias such as the Mahdi Army, however, are believed to have strong roots in the city’s extensive slums, where many people reportedly blame the British for the lack of any improvements in their conditions over the past three years. At least twice in the past the Basra provincial council has promised to cut off relations with British forces, but such boycotts have been relatively short-lived.
Several local leaders, including the head of the city council and a Basra police commander, have condemned Monday’s raid. Mohammed al-Ibadi, provincial council chairman, said the council had decided to cut off ties with British forces pending an explanation of why they destroyed an “Iraq government building flying the Iraqi flag” and removed detainees he described as suspected terrorists. But a British military spokesman said it was unaware of any boycott by the full council, and some local officials including the governor offered their support for the operation, which involved Iraqi as well as British forces. Over 1,000 British troops participated in the raid that culminated in the demolition of the Jamiat police station.
A British spokesman said 127 prisoners were discovered in the basement, some of them with their kneecaps shot off, their hands or feet crushed, or with cigarette or electrical burns. He said the police station was a base of a criminal gang associated with the local Serious Crimes Unit, which had access to weaponry, vehicles and police intelligence used in death squad activity. He said the gang might have targeted competitors, as well as “anyone they did not like the look of or [who] had crossed them in some way”. British officials also say that the unit was associated with the capture of two British soldiers in September 2005, which precipitated a raid on Jamiat station to free them. It was also said to be involved in the abduction and murder of 17 police employees in October.
Basra citizens frequently complain about their police force, which many say is the product of a local authority that is fractured between several large Shia Islamist factions, including the Fadila party, the radical Sadrist movement, and the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, plus a handful of smaller ones. In the absence of clear dominance by one faction or the other, each has cultivated its allies within the police force.
Some citizens have praised Mr Maliki for taking a firm hand against local corruption. Militias such as the Mahdi Army, however, are believed to have strong roots in the city’s extensive slums, where many people reportedly blame the British for the lack of any improvements in their conditions over the past three years. At least twice in the past the Basra provincial council has promised to cut off relations with British forces, but such boycotts have been relatively short-lived.
