BASRA, Iraq, 20 September 2005 — In a major show of force, British soldiers used tanks to break down the walls of the central jail in the southern city of Basra late yesterday and freed two Britons, allegedly undercover commandos, who had been arrested on charges of shooting two Iraqi policemen.
Aquil Jabbar, an Iraqi television cameraman who lives across the street from the jail, said about 150 Iraqi prisoners also fled as British commandos stormed inside and rescued their comrades.
Yesterday’s violence in Basra, 550 km south of the capital, flared earlier in the day as demonstrators hurled stones and Molotov cocktails at British tanks and at least four people were killed. The fighting erupted after British armor encircled the jail where the two Britons were being held. During the melee one soldier could be seen scrambling for his life from a burning tank and the rock-throwing mob. Press Association, the British news agency, reported that three British soldiers were hurt during the violence, but said none of their injuries was life-threatening, according to Ministry of Defense officials in London.
Arab satellite television stations showed pictures of two Western men sitting on the floor of the jail building with their hands tied behind their backs. One of the men had a bandage covering most of the top of his head, the other had blood on his clothes. Television commentary identified them only as Britons.
British military officials had declined to comment on reports the two arrested men were soldiers operating undercover, but the Ministry of Defense in London told Britain’s Press Association that “two military personnel were detained by Iraqi authorities earlier today.”
“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.”
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, although it was not clear if the vehicle itself was on fire or if the flames came from materials burning on top of the tank.
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.
Meanwhile, a nephew of ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has been sentenced to life behind bars for making bombs and financing rebel activities in the violence-ravaged country, the government said. “The Iraqi criminal court has convicted the terrorist Aymen Sabawi, a half-brother nephew of Saddam Hussein, for being an active insurgency supporter, and for the possession and manufacture of explosive devices, and sentenced him to life imprisonment,” a government statement said. It was the first known case of a relative of Iraq’s former president being tried and convicted. Sabawi’s sentence was unveiled exactly a month before Saddam himself is due to go on trial over a 1982 massacre of Shiite villagers.
