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</font><font face="arial" size=5>British Occupation Forces Suspected
Behind Sectarian Terrorism in Southern Iraq: The Two British Soldiers
Drove a Car Bomb in Basra<br><br>
</font><font face="arial" size=3>Al-Jazeerah, September 21, 2005<br><br>
The following is a summary, not a literal translation:<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
</font><font face="arial" size=3 color="#FF0000"><b>Other
sources:<br><br>
</b></font><font size=3> <br><br>
</font><font size=5>British soldiers were using a civilian car packed
with explosives<br><br>
</font><font face="arial" size=3>BAGHDAD, Sept. 19
</font><font face="arial" size=3 color="#FF0000"><b>(Xinhuanet) --
<br><br>
</b></font><font face="arial" size=3>Iraqi police detained two British
soldiers in civilian clothes in the southern city Basra for firing on a
police station on Monday, police said. <br><br>
"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. <br><br>
</font><font face="arial" size=3 color="#FF0000"><b>The two soldiers were
using a civilian car packed with
explosives</b></font><font face="arial" size=3>, the source said.
<br><br>
He added that the two were being interrogated in the police headquarters
of Basra. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
</font> <br><br>
<font face="arial" size=3 color="#FF0000"><b>GlobalResearch.ca <br><br>
</b></font><font face="arial" size=3>September 20, 2005 <br><br>
The following Reuters report raises some disturbing questions. <br><br>
<b>Why were undercover British "soldiers" wearing traditional
Arab headscarves firing at Iraqi police? <br><br>
</b>The incident took place just prior to a major religious event in
Basra. <br><br>
The report suggests that the police thought the British soldiers looked
"suspicious". What was the nature of their mission? <br><br>
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?
<br><br>
"British forces used up to 10 tanks " supported by helicopters
" to smash through the walls of the jail and free the two British
servicemen." <br><br>
<b>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? <br><br>
A report of Al Jazeera TV, which preceded the raid on the prison,
suggests that </font><font face="arial" size=3 color="#FF0000">the
British undercover soldiers were driving a booby trapped car loaded with
ammunition</font><font face="arial" size=3>. The Al Jazeera report (see
below) also suggests that the riots directed against British military
presence were motivated because
</font><font face="arial" size=3 color="#FF0000">the British undercover
soldiers were planning to explode the booby trapped car in the centre of
Basra: <br><br>
</b></font><font face="arial" size=3>[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? <br><br>
[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.
</font><font face="arial" size=3 color="#FF0000"><b>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.</b></font><font face="arial" size=3> 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. <br><br>
[Al-Ghuraybi] Thank you Fattah al-Shaykh, member of the National Assembly
and deputy for Basra. <br><br>
Text of report by Qatari Al-Jazeera satellite TV on 19 September
(emphasis added) <br><br>
</font><font face="arial" size=3 color="#FF0000"><b>Is this an isolated
incident or is part of a pattern? <br><br>
More significantly, have the occupation forces been involved in similar
undercover missions? </b></font><font face="arial" size=3>Syrian TV (Sept
19, 2005) reports the following: <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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
</font><font face="arial" size=3 color="#FF0000"><b>two detained Britons
were wearing traditional Iraqi jallabahs [loose cloaks] and wigs.
<br><br>
</b></font><font face="arial" size=3>[Italics added] <br><br>
An indepth independent inquiry should be ordered by Britain's House of
Commons into the circumstances of this event. <br><br>
Michel Chossudovsky <br><br>
Global Research Editor, 20 Sept 2005 <br><br>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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