[News] British Occupation Forces Suspected Behind Sectarian Terrorism

[Anti-Imperialist News]

British Occupation Forces Suspected Behind Sectarian Terrorism in Southern 
Iraq: The Two British Soldiers Drove a Car Bomb in Basra

Al-Jazeerah, September 21, 2005

The following is a summary, not a literal translation:

Abu Dhabi TV reported at 1:00 pm ET that the two British soldiers who were 
arrested by Iraqi police, then by Al-Mahdi Militia, then freed by British 
tanks and helicopters were driving a car bomb lauded with explosives. They 
were in their way to downtown Basra probably to detonate it there.

Dr. Walid Al-Zubaidi, An Iraqi academic and a political analyst told Abu 
Dhabi TV during the interview, that the British occupation forces used 
tanks and helicopters and killed and injured many Iraqis in order to rescue 
the two under cover soldiers before they speak to the Iraqi police about 
their mission. They demolished the prison to discover that the two soldiers 
were not there. They were taken by Al-Mahdi militia. Then, British 
occupation helicopters flew to the house they were held in, and snatched 
them from the house, killing and injuring several Iraqis.

Dr. Walid Al-Zubaidi flatly said that Iraqis now are sure that the British 
occupation forces are responsible for the many terrorist attacks that 
killed thousands of Iraqis, in an attempt to create and expedite a 
Sunni-Shi'i civil war in Iraq, hoping that such a civil war will serve them 
to stay there as an occupying power.

Al-Zubaidi said this is one of the most important piece of evidence 
implicating occupation forces in several terrorist attacks against Shi'is 
and Sunnis. He listed several of them in which the police and witnesses 
said that occupation forces committed them. But in the past, there was no 
evidence. Now, these two British terrorist soldiers have presented the 
evidence that Iraqis have been looking for.

Other sources:



British soldiers were using a civilian car packed with explosives

BAGHDAD, Sept. 19 (Xinhuanet) --

Iraqi police detained two British soldiers in civilian clothes in the 
southern city Basra for firing on a police station on Monday, police said.

"Two persons wearing Arab uniforms opened fire at a police station in 
Basra. A police patrol followed the attackers and captured them to discover 
they were two British soldiers," an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua.

The two soldiers were using a civilian car packed with explosives, the 
source said.

He added that the two were being interrogated in the police headquarters of 
Basra.

The British forces informed the Iraqi authorities that the two soldiers 
were performing an official duty, the source said. British military 
authorities said they could not confirm the incident but investigations 
were underway.



GlobalResearch.ca

September 20, 2005

The following Reuters report raises some disturbing questions.

Why were undercover British "soldiers" wearing traditional Arab headscarves 
firing at Iraqi police?

The incident took place just prior to a major religious event in Basra.

The report suggests that the police thought the British soldiers looked 
"suspicious". What was the nature of their mission?

Occupation forces are supposed to be collaborating with Iraqi authorities. 
Why did British Forces have to storm the prison using tanks and armoured 
vehicles to liberate the British undercover agents?

"British forces used up to 10 tanks " supported by helicopters " to smash 
through the walls of the jail and free the two British servicemen."

Was there concern that the British "soldiers" who were being held by the 
Iraqi National Guard would be obliged to reveal the nature and objective of 
their undercover mission?

A report of Al Jazeera TV, which preceded the raid on the prison, suggests 
that the British undercover soldiers were driving a booby trapped car 
loaded with ammunition. The Al Jazeera report (see below) also suggests 
that the riots directed against British military presence were motivated 
because the British undercover soldiers were planning to explode the booby 
trapped car in the centre of Basra:

[Anchorman Al-Habib al-Ghuraybi] We have with us on the telephone from 
Baghdad Fattah al-Shaykh, member of the Iraqi National Assembly. What are 
the details of and the facts surrounding this incident?

[Al-Shaykh] In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate. There have 
been continuous provocative acts since the day before yesterday by the 
British forces against the peaceful sons of Basra. There have been 
indiscriminate arrests, the most recent of which was the arrest of Shaykh 
Ahmad al-Farqusi and two Basra citizens on the pretext that they had 
carried out terrorist operations to kill US soldiers. This is a baseless 
claim. This was confirmed to us by [name indistinct] the second secretary 
at the British Embassy in Baghdad, when we met with him a short while ago. 
He said that there is evidence on this. We say: You should come up with 
this evidence or forget about this issue. If you really want to look for 
truth, then we should resort to the Iraqi justice away from the British 
provocations against the sons of Basra, particularly what happened today 
when the sons of Basra caught two non-Iraqis, who seem to be Britons and 
were in a car of the Cressida type. It was a booby-trapped car laden with 
ammunition and was meant to explode in the centre of the city of Basra in 
the popular market. However, the sons of the city of Basra arrested them. 
They [the two non-Iraqis] then fired at the people there and killed some of 
them. The two arrested persons are now at the Intelligence Department in 
Basra, and they were held by the National Guard force, but the British 
occupation forces are still surrounding this department in an attempt to 
absolve them of the crime.

[Al-Ghuraybi] Thank you Fattah al-Shaykh, member of the National Assembly 
and deputy for Basra.

Text of report by Qatari Al-Jazeera satellite TV on 19 September (emphasis 
added)

Is this an isolated incident or is part of a pattern?

More significantly, have the occupation forces been involved in similar 
undercover missions? Syrian TV (Sept 19, 2005) reports the following:

Ten Iraqis - seven police commandos, two civilians and a child - were 
killed and more than 10 others wounded in the explosion of two car bombs 
near two checkpoints in Al-Mahmudiyah and Al-Latifiyah south of Baghdad 
while hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were heading towards the city of 
Karbala to mark the anniversary of a religious event.

And in a significant incident in the city of Basra, which is also marking 
the same religious event, Iraqi demonstrators set fire to two British tanks 
near a police station after Iraqi police had arrested two British soldiers 
disguised in civilian clothes for opening fire on police. Eight armoured 
British vehicles surrounded the police station before the eruption of the 
confrontations. A policeman at the scene said the two detained Britons were 
wearing traditional Iraqi jallabahs [loose cloaks] and wigs.

[Italics added]

An indepth independent inquiry should be ordered by Britain's House of 
Commons into the circumstances of this event.

Michel Chossudovsky

Global Research Editor, 20 Sept 2005

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 


The Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) at 
<http://www.globalresearch.ca>www.globalresearch.ca  contact: 
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