British Tanks Attacked in Basra [Archive]

Brit55

19th Sep 2005, 16:15

Just been sitting watching Sky News as they showed footage of a tank being attacked in what appears to be an organised effort. Crowd used at least 6 petrol bombs which forced the crew to exit the tank. I saw one guy being forced to the ground with large rocks hitting him before he is set upon by the crowd.

Does anybody know if the crew are ok i.e are they back in safe hands? Horrific scenes, not what you would expect in Basra.

Trouble seems to have started as Iraqi Police arrested two plain clothed British Soldiers who had shot at several other policemen (sketchy info). Photos of the two Brits have been released by the Iraqi authorities, very clever.

truckiebloke

19th Sep 2005, 18:11

the video footage looks horrendous and i only hope that the guys in the tank survived the mob attack.

It perhaps seems that they were afraid/wary to use force to stop themselves being attacked and ultimately injured.

I just wonder how much damage the recent trials of soldiers who have been accused of using too much force, (and then leading to murder charges) has played on their minds...

The guys on the ground are doing a stressful job, and it seems basra is getting worse now, more than ever before. good luck fellas.

On another point, if the local authorities arent working hand in hand with our troops when it comes to policing then we have to question our role. It is their country, and the iraqi police seem to have been involved in arresting the two guys..... and somewhere along the line the troops were sent in to get them back out. All of this happening near the police station itself, so where were the police, and where was the backup for the troops???

SmilingKnifed

19th Sep 2005, 18:20

Just seen the footage on the BBC's website, not good.

Thoughts, as ever, with all those out there.

Jobza Guddun

19th Sep 2005, 19:23

Truckiebloke,

Your para 3 probably says what most of us are thinking, and you can bet it crossed those guys minds. If they've been killed because they didn't dare open fire, then there's more blood on Blair's hands with his lots eagerness to put squaddies on the stand.

Thoughts with the families of all those involved today.

wg13_dummy

19th Sep 2005, 20:09

Just heard on channel 5 news that Brit tanks have broken through the walls of the police station and freed the two captives. Still unsubstanciated as yet and no links on the net. Hope its true. Good drills.

PT6ER

19th Sep 2005, 20:16

Leaving the horrific scenes concerning the soldiers aside, how does a fire stop a Warrior?

I would have assumed (being a layman) that they were designed with a cold war fight in mind i.e. NBC capable, EMP hardened etc etc so how does a petrol bomb disable it?

There have been losses of M1A1 main battle tanks and the question applies to them as well.

Any information gratefully received.

Cheers

PT6ER

wg13_dummy

19th Sep 2005, 20:20

PT6Er.. dont take this the wrong way but I would hope no information is given on the public domain regarding this. (Despite it being beamed all over the world).

PT6ER

19th Sep 2005, 20:23

Not taken the wrong way at all.

After the post I wondered if it would be giving away the farm!

Too much information is, or appears to be, given away by our press / media people anyway.

Do as my wife does and totally ignore my previous contribution

:ok:

wg13_dummy

19th Sep 2005, 20:26

Reuters update (http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-09-19T201444Z_01_YUE946529_RTRUKOC_0_UK-IRAQ-BRITONS.xml)

Pureteenlard

19th Sep 2005, 20:30

PT6ER - the usual way is for a petrol bomb on the engine decking to burn up all the available oxygen around the engine air-intakes. No oxygen, your diesel stops and you're stuck. Not a happy prospect even if they can't get in they now have time to think about the problem while you stayed buttoned up, praying that your mates are coming to rescue you - which, this being the British Army, they definitely will be.

truckiebloke

19th Sep 2005, 20:35

glad to see they got the guys out, which guessing who they are(an educated guess) is probably a good thing.

Still, there isnt too much point in speculating as it will never reach the press!! although they will do their best to hype it up!!

if the iraqi police are doing such a good job, get our boys out of iraq i think.......

Brit55

19th Sep 2005, 21:11

Well, if the stories are true, I'm loving the fact that we just rammed a few tanks through the walls and shouted, "Taxi for 2!". You can only imagine the faces on the jail guards as soldiers 1 & 2 hitched a lift back to camp via a Challenger II, class act.

Perhaps the minority in Basra who coordinated todays efforts will sit back and realise that even the British Army's patience has an elastic limit!

Good effort peeps, shaken but not stirred... :cool:

An Teallach

19th Sep 2005, 21:14

Agree wholeheartedly, Brit55.

If true, the local commander who ordered the operation and those who carried it out would get a tick VG from me at least.

Emperor Ming

19th Sep 2005, 21:46

:ok:
Job Well done on getting the lads out of the nick. What suprises me is that these so called high ranking policemen knew these guys were british soldiers and didn't ask for the local Commander to come down to get his guys. Our guys are there to provide assistance to their country, but yet again they seem to s:mad:t on us given the first opportunity.

I just hope the magnificent way that the guys were 'broken out' may have wiped the smile of some smug insurgent coppers face!

Skytrucker

19th Sep 2005, 21:52

Just seen on the news that reinforcements pitched up, slotted two and winged 15. Crowd seemed to thin out a little after that. Tick VG for showing such restraint.

Always_broken_in_wilts

19th Sep 2005, 22:49

My first thoughts watching the early evening footage was why the **** not select first gear and just drive on through the petrol bombing bastards.

However as truckie bloke states:-

"I just wonder how much damage the recent trials of soldiers who have been accused of using too much force, (and then leading to murder charges) has played on their minds..."

For me I just remember those two unfortunate police Cpl's in Belfast who suffered the ultimate mob/terrorist fate and know that faced with todays scenario I would shoot to kill and worry about the court case later...........

Which is a pretty sad indictment of our lords and masters who have placed folks in harms way without the required "backup"

all spelling mistakes are "df" alcohol induced

The Helpful Stacker

19th Sep 2005, 22:59

For me I just remember those two unfortunate police Cpl's in Belfast who suffered the ultimate mob/terrorist fate and know that faced with todays scenario I would shoot to kill and worry about the court case later...........

Do you mean the two Signallers who panicked and pulled their pistols when an IRA funeral march was going past and were then beaten to death by the crowd?

Duncan D'Sorderlee

19th Sep 2005, 23:03

Stacker,

That's not quite how I recall watching it on TV! More along the lines of ABIW.

wg13_dummy

19th Sep 2005, 23:09

Probably not an apt or relevant subject to compare at the moment.

Talking Radalt

19th Sep 2005, 23:10

Do you mean the two Signallers who panicked and pulled their pistols when an IRA funeral march was going past and were then beaten to death by the crowd?
....he said from the warm fluffy comfort of a desk.

Fully agree, good effort all round, both the initial restraint by the Warrior crew and the eventual ar$e kicking at the Nick. PLEASE tell me they parked some tracked heavy armour in the local Chief Inspector's parking spot... :p
"I'll see your Toyota crew-cab pick up and raise you a Chally 2"

:ok:

Always_broken_in_wilts

19th Sep 2005, 23:15

Stacker,

It matters not who or what those two young men were, they were servicemen who, at the time, were befuddled with the crap ROE and the ensuing implications of discharging their weapons and lost their lives in the most appaling circumstances.

May I suggest you "stroke for Britain" , are a tosser of the highest order and doubt you have ever been in harms way of any description :}

all spelling mistakes are "df" alcohol induced

Jackonicko

20th Sep 2005, 00:16

Just the mention of that incident in NI made my blood run cold. Every time I see the footage I wonder how and why every single one of the bastards whose faces can be seen were not imprisoned (or, and god help me for saying this) simply quietly taken out and beaten (or even slotted). And it makes me wonder how, with Pleasant Pumas, Finch Gazelles or Chancellor Lynxes (one was definitely up and watching) they didn't get evidence to prosecute those who finally executed the Squaddies, after they'd been beaten and 'interrogated'.

I was shocked to see the Warrior apparently unable to escape, and profoundly worried that the crew couldn't simply sit it out, or spray the surrounding crowd with some well aimed fire 'over their heads'. The sight of one lad leaping down in a hail of rocks was appalling, and the stills of chaps bailing out actually on fire was even worse. Thank God that the reports indicate that all got away with it with only minor injuries.

We went to war for the wrong reasons (but now we're there, running away isn't an option) and nothing ever excuses beating up prisoners in custody, but when the ROE prevent soldiers 'in contact' from protecting themselves, and when the British Army and local Police are on opposite sides, something is very badly wrong.

The Helpful Stacker

20th Sep 2005, 00:43

Excuse me MR ABIW, I wasn't playing down the incident or accusing the Signallers of escalating it so don't get all shirty with me.

Their 'panic' was a failure of the system.

A failure in intelligence (or should I say lack of).

A failure in briefing, confusion with 'actions on'.

A failure in dissemination of information, most specifically RoE.

As for,

....he said from the warm fluffy comfort of a desk.

and

and doubt you have ever been in harms way of any description

Why don't you both go forth and multiply. You don't know me or where I have been during my service in both the RGJ's and the RAF.

I made a comment based on documented facts, you picked the first bit of bollocks to drip into the front of your grey matter.

Brit55

20th Sep 2005, 00:56

I love it when people get all defensive!

Blankets back into cots please, the main issue here is that once again, the Brits showed the US Army how to do business.

The US would have had Apaches overhead, A10s in a CAS stack, Bradleys left right and centre and (this is based on previous events) may well have shot into the crowd from the start.

Better to get out, assess what has just happened before getting back in there and tw@ting whoever was responsible with a measured response i.e. several tanks through a wall!!

The Helpful Stacker

20th Sep 2005, 01:00

I agree, it does seem to have been a well thought out response.

Not much you can do against a couple of tanks smashing through your front door really.

I don't reckon JSUB MT would have been too happy with the dents on 'their' vehicles though.;)

PS, To other Pprune users. I must apologise for biting to such an obvious troll earlier and my subsequent angered response. Its wasn't I believe in keeping with the usual behaviour displayed on this forum and as such I'll try to ignore obvious inflammatory comments from folk who are bereft of the fact in future.

The Helpful Stacker

20th Sep 2005, 06:54

Wo wo wo 'Agent747'.

No one knows the full details of the event yet, only hearsay and conjecture. Perhaps it'd be better to wait for the dust to settle and the full facts come out (if they do) before branding members of the British Army racists for carrying out actions which they are being ordered to do.

For all we know the Iraqi Policeman that was shot causing this whole incident was 'moonlighting' for terrorist organisations, something that isn't exactly unheard of in Iraq at the mo.

From the 'information' that seems to be trickling through the news services it appears the two undercover serviceman were rescued from a private residence rather than a police station as initially suspected and it was believed they were in the process of being handed over to local militia. If this was the case then the actions of the Army were well justified.

But as I say, who really knows and will we ever know the truth, from both sides?

PPRuNeUser0211

20th Sep 2005, 07:04

BBC news now reporting the MOD are saying that the local commander on the ground negotiated to take our chaps into custody and they turned up to take them back, then some militants (read angry locals) turned up and tried to snatch them. In the confusion some poor unfortunate tankie knocked down a wall and let loose Basra's gangsters.....

And no I'm not a white supremecist or similar! But not overly happy about the thought of two of our guys being in an iraqi jail with an angry mob outside. If they've done wrong, fine, give them a fair trial!

ORAC

20th Sep 2005, 07:12

BBC: UK soldiers 'freed from militia'

Two British soldiers freed after tanks broke into a Basra prison were being held by Shia militiamen, the Ministry of Defence said.
The MoD said the men had been found at a nearby house after troops broke into the city's prison to look for them.......

An MoD spokesman said: "Two British soldiers were detained and taken to an Iraqi police station. We then started negotiating with the Iraqi authorities for their release. "We understand that the authorities ordered their release. Unfortunately they weren't released and we became concerned for their safety and as a result a Warrior infantry fighting vehicle broke down the perimeter wall in one place.

"Our guys went in there and searched it from top to bottom in order to go and recover our two soldiers who had been detained. "They weren't there unfortunately but we did obtain intelligence that pointed to where they were. We then launched another operation to recover them, from a house in Basra."......
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

No doubt to be held as hostages in exchange for Sheikh Ahmed al-Fartusi.

RTR

20th Sep 2005, 07:17

Well what a nice tale to wake up to! Let us hope it stirs the minds (Shias) of those who we have TWICE saved from a fate worse than death.

I also hope that 'WE' get to grips with those people who think that we are there just as fire and stone fodder.

nannas_new_hip

20th Sep 2005, 07:54

Better to be judged by 12 then carried by 6.

BZ to those men!!

Talking Radalt

20th Sep 2005, 07:57

Once again, typical holywood movie white supremist racist bufffoonary. Once again the notion that the white man is far more important than the fecking sand nigg*r of an Iraqi! You pricks make me want to puke. The damn asses that fired at the police men deserve to be tried by the laws of the country. They deserve it. My fellow countrymen or not, they are pricks of the highest order and there is nothing remotely moral or heroic about their job, stealing and securing oil is not moral and if you insist on staying there then do not moan when people attack you instead!

Once again, typical student union band-wagoneering sypathising buffoonery. Once again the notion that the insurgent militia is far more important than the fecking white man! You pricks make me want to puke. The damn asses that petrol-bombed the British Army deserve to be tried by the laws of the country. They deserve it. My fellow human beings or not, they are pricks of the highest order and there is nothing remotely moral or heroic about their job, harassing and killing soldiers is not moral and if you insist on attacking do not moan when people retaliate instead!

:E

maxburner

20th Sep 2005, 09:05

It's a desparate situation all round. The reformed Iraqi police are infiltrated by militant Shias so who's side are we actually on? I think that, once again, our troops on the ground showed heroic restraint and a cool, measured response. They are in a **** storm not of their making and they seem to be handling themselves with admirable courage and composure. Thank God our guys were rescued before the mob or the militia got to them.

truckiebloke

20th Sep 2005, 09:20

i dont think any of the true facts will come out, but the intelligent amongst us will know that the two guys being back safe on base is far better than being in the hands of local militia.... there is no argument about that..

It is truly sickening to see our guys in that situation and the whole country seems to be on a downhill slide - thats my opinion from being there, and not from the media.

Bush and Bliar have alot to answer for, and when they both retire(hopefully soon) on their massive pensions and the gravy trains they will be on, our guys will still be there.

Either we back them to use their judgment to protect themselves(when surrounded by angry mobs pelting them with petrol bombs) or we pull them out.

(ABIW fully agree with you mate.)

ORAC

20th Sep 2005, 09:24

BBC:

Brigadier John Lorimer said it was of "deep concern" the men detained by police ended up held by Shia militia.....

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. "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.

"I'm delighted that the two British soldiers are back with British forces and are in good health," Brig Lorimer said. But he 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."

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.....

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.".....

SASless

20th Sep 2005, 09:33

Funny how speaking through a gun barrel can break down language barriers!

:ok:

SilsoeSid

20th Sep 2005, 11:56

All I say is thank goodness they got the 2 away from where they were being held. I would rather let 150 criminals break free from prison, (alleged reports), than see the consequences of not getting them back immediately.

I think we all know what footage would have shortly appeared on Al Jazeera.

The question is, 'Where does this now leave us?'

http://bestsmileys.com/rude/5.gif
SS

The Gorilla

20th Sep 2005, 12:13

Stacker

It's always like that on here these days mate. Some people just don't like opposing views and reply with personal remarks. Reasoned argument, which once this forum was famed for, appears to be dead. So I have learnt that it is best not to post on such emotional threads.

But I think most of us agree, it is time for all our troops in this theatre of operations to come home.

:ok:

ORAC

20th Sep 2005, 13:10

The police are definitely not to be trusted.

The Times - 20th Sept: Second journalist probing Basra police killed

An Iraqi journalist investigating the infiltration of Basra's police force by extremists from the Shia militia was abducted and killed by masked men who identified themselves as police. Fakher Haider, a 38-year-old Shia Muslim reporter covering Basra for The New York Times, was found dead with his hands bound and a bag over his head in a deserted area on the city’s outskirts yesterday morning.

On Sunday, Haider filed reports about the angry demonstrations that followed the arrest by British forces of two high-ranking members of the Mahdi Army, the militia loyal to the hardline Shia cleric Moktada al-Sadr. Shortly after midnight, two cars - one unmarked, the other a police car - were driven up to his apartment building. Three men, carrying AK-47 assault rifles, ransacked the flat removing mobile phones and videotapes. Haider, a father with three children aged 5, 7and 9, told his wife not to worry as he was led outside and bundled into one of the waiting vehicles. Hours later, she was called to identify his body at the city morgue. He appeared to have been shot more than once in the head. His back was bruised, suggesting he had been beaten.

In recent months, Haider had confided to friends that he was worried about the increasingly violent atmosphere in Basra. In July, gunmen in a pick-up truck chased his car and fired at him - he escaped after driving off-road and firing his pistol into the air, he told a friend.

Many of Haider's most recent photographs, showing British military vehicles targeted in Basra, had been published on the ironically-titled They Love Us Really website which highlights the difficult relationship between locals and the coalition forces. Among the images is a chilling picture of US consulate workers loading the body of Steven Vincent, a freelance journalist attached to the New York Times who was executed in Basra last month, into the back of an ambulance.

Vincent, too, had been inquiring into the extent to which the police force in Basra had become a tool of Shia extremists. Their deaths have taken on an enhanced political significance with the breakdown of relations between the local police force and British troops based in the city following yesterday's prison ram-raid......

OFBSLF

20th Sep 2005, 16:05

Blankets back into cots please, the main issue here is that once again, the Brits showed the US Army how to do business.As expected, it didn't take long for someone to slag off the US Army, even though they weren't involved.

I do wonder, if the captives had been US soldiers and the same rescue performed by the US Army, whether the posts here on PPrune would have been so congratulatory. I suspect, instead, the posts would have said that Brit soldiers never would have been captured, that UK forces would have respected the authority of the Iraqi judicial system, etc.

Brit55

20th Sep 2005, 17:49

Apologies OFBSLF,

just pointing out that the UK forces seem to show more restraint than the US who never seem to opt for the 'hearts and minds' side of warfare!

No offence intended however, I will say that the US pulled us into this situation, we've done our bit, lets get out and leave the worlds super power to it. I'm serving in the RAF at the moment and I'm very proud of the service along with the Army and RN however, Iraq is bleeding us dry of funding and quite frankly, I suspect that most of us have had enough.

SASless

20th Sep 2005, 17:55

Bleeding the purse ?

Reckon somewhere in the Exchequer they can find a few more Bob to throw in the kitty?:{

West Coast

20th Sep 2005, 18:11

I did wonder why an issue between a Brit tank and some locals in Basrah is somehow referenced to a notional US response. Short willy stndrome I suspect. Nope, this one was all yours to screw up or be a superhero. After the initial cockup, things seem to be on the right track.

I would have hoped that the US would have never turned the personal over to the Iraqis to begin with. Now who is in favor of turning over your boys to international courts?

"show more restraint"

Busting your lads out is showing restraint? It was the right thing to do after the screw up of giving them away to begin with, but I don't see any degree of restraint. Sounds like you're working off the initial info, not the more indepth reports now surfacing.

Brit55

20th Sep 2005, 22:15

I was not referring to the tank v wall event as one of restraint, rather the events that led up to it.

West Coast

20th Sep 2005, 23:32

"I was not referring to the tank v wall event as one of restraint, rather the events that led up to it"

Handing the soldiers over to begin with?

wg13_dummy

20th Sep 2005, 23:36

Handing the soldiers over to begin with?

Wheres that coming from? Who handed them over? Are you on about the IP handing them to the militia?

Darth Nigel

21st Sep 2005, 00:32

Handing the soldiers over to begin with?

There's two pieces here, and I hope for some clarification. I'm not trying to be argumentative, but it has been a long ugly software-bug-encrusted day... I am not trying to put words in anyone's mouth, but my understanding here is waaaay incomplete and I look forward to some dialogue.

Step (a): The Iraqi security forces/police arrested/detained/apprehended two undercover members of the British Military (allegedly hooligans from Hereford, but I guess we'll have to wait for "Andy McNab's" next book to be sure) who were involved in a spot of bother of some kind.

Step (b): The Iraqi security forces informed the British that they had caught a couple of their boys, as per the RoE between the Coalition and the Iraqis.
Question 1: Is it the case that WC and others on the US side feel that allowing the British soldiers to be apprehended by the Iraqis was "handing them over"? And that the RoE should not have supported such a case?

Step (c): For reasons not immediately clear, the Iraqi security forces released these British soldiers to the "custody" of the local insurgent militia.

Step (d): The British took immediate action to track down their errant soldiers (I agree with SASless, I would have paid serious money to see some poor Iraqi desk clerk looking down the end of the 30 mm gun trying to explain what had happened). Aforementioned soldiers were recovered, one assumes unharmed, and a quiet night was had by all.

Question 2: West Coast, you seem to have equated some aspect of this Iraqi cock-up to placing US soldiers under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, or the War Crimes Tribunal. I really don't see that connection, since I think an international organization like the ICC is somewhat different from the Basra Precinct of the Iraqi Police Force and Rifle Club.

And one final observation. It does not fill me with a warm fuzzy feeling that the local insurgent militia were strong enough to persuade the local Iraqi Police Force to hand these guys over. I'm not going to draw the conclusion that it's all a disaster because of this one incident, which was resolved in a very British way ("Send a gun-boat"), but there are distrubing indications of the power matrix in the Basra area... which might be why British Forces were operating in a somewhat clandestine fashion.

And I assume that the Americans also have undercover people out in the country doing things that we won't hear about. Again, I'm not trying to turn this into a Yank-bashing festival -- I'm curious for other peoples' thoughts.

Nigel

ginjockey

21st Sep 2005, 02:11

The entire thing is just a pathetic joke. Tanks burning, people shot dead, everyone finger pointing, pictures of sullen looking soldiers or spies or whatever they are chained up in their cell, tankcrews running about on fire, prison walls and cars smashed to bits, riots in the street, idiot politicians bulsh*tting about it on the TV ............... all in the full focus of the international media.

Everyone should have stayed in bed that day. What a joke. I'm not taking sides on it because I have no idea what the real story is but the whole saga has done nothing but damage the rebuilding process. Unfortunately we can all look forward to seeing much more of it for the next decade or two.

Pathetic.

West Coast

21st Sep 2005, 04:26

It was my understanding that UK authorities handed the soldiers over to begin with. If this isn't correct then I am in error.

Either way, yes I am taking a swipe at the ICC.

ORAC

21st Sep 2005, 05:43

The Times:

AN SAS team used the noise of armoured vehicles bulldozing their way through a nearby police compound to mask the raid that freed their comrades.

The rescuers, from the same squad as the captives, blew out the doors and windows of the smart suburban villa with plastic explosive and hurled stun grenades at the militiamen guarding the two undercover soldiers. A short, intense burst of automatic gunfire was heard before the men were freed and their captors were seen being dragged away, hoods over their heads and their hands tied behind their backs.

Neighbours said the entire operation took only a couple of minutes while attention was focused a hundred yards away on the army’s invasion of the main Jamiat police compound.......

The soldiers had been beaten and rogue policemen had been touring the area with loudhailers urging demonstrators on to the streets to protest that the “British saboteurs” had been planning explosions in the city which would be blamed on followers of Moqtada al-Sadr, the Shia cleric......

The two soldiers are believed to have been investigating a corrupt police unit in Basra who were colluding with Shia militia leaders. Some of the men who later interrogated them are believed to be part of this same unit.....

ORAC

21st Sep 2005, 15:03

The Iraqis can´t even coordinate their story.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -

Story 1:
Interior Minister Bayan Jabr disputed the British account. He told the British Broadcasting Corp. the two soldiers never left police custody or the jail, were not handed to militants, and that the British army acted on a "rumor'' when it stormed the jail.

Story 2:
The British said the soldiers had been handed over to a militia. The Basra governor confirmed the claim, saying the Britons were in the custody of the al-Mahdi Army, the militia controlled by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. "The two British were being kept in a house controlled by militiamen when the rescue operation took place,'' said Gov. Mohammed al-Waili. "Police who are members of the militia group took them to a nearby house after jail authorities learned the facility was about to be stormed,'' he said.

Story 3:
CNN: [National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie] CNN in a phone interview, "The multinational forces said when they arrived at the police station the soldiers were moved to the private residence of a militia leader. Our story is that this is an annex to the police station and used for detaining people, hence the British troops went into that location and freed them."

:hmm: :hmm: