Engulfed by flames of outrage in Iraq

A British soldier in flames as he flees his armoured vehicle. Three troops were injured in the attack by an angry Iraqi crowd. Picture / Reuters

Furious crowds pelted British armoured vehicles with rocks and petrol bombs in Basra after British undercover soldiers were said to have fired on Iraqi police.

Troops had to flee from blazing Warrior armoured vehicles when the mob threw petrol bombs. Three troops were injured and a soldier could be seen scrambling for his life from a burning vehicle.

Britain later sent in troops to free the two undercover soldiers after discovering they had been handed over by Iraqi police to local militia, the Army said yesterday.
"From an early stage I had good reason to believe the lives of the two soldiers were at risk," Brigadier John Lorimer said in a statement to the media.

The British commanding officer in Basra said his concern for the arrested men increased after he received information they had been handed over to "militia elements".

A decision was taken to enter the police station where they were thought to be on Monday and an armoured vehicle crashed through the perimeter wall of the jail. When it was discovered the two men were not in the jail, they were rescued from a nearby house, he said.

"What happened yesterday was that two of our servicemen were arrested by Iraqi police and, under the law as it stands, they should have been handed back to the military authorities," said British Defence Secretary John Reid.

He said that is what the police were asked to do by their own Ministry of the Interior and by local judges.

"But in the course of the day we became increasingly worried that those people in there to negotiate with the police seemed to be having no success in getting our men out."

Mr Reid said it was not clear whether the Iraqi police were under threat themselves or colluding with local militia. Brigadier Lorimer said troops had been sent on Monday to the area of Basra near the police station where the two men had been detained to help ensure their safety.

"As shown on television, these troops were attacked with firebombs and rockets by a violent and determined crowd." Tensions in Basra had already been stoked on Sunday when British forces arrested two leading members of the Mehdi army, a nationalist militia led by radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

British forces have refused to release the detainees, insisting that Iraqi police had been prevented from bringing them to justice by "people who clearly oppose law and order".

The local police force has long been rumoured to have been infiltrated by members of the militia. There have been repeated protests in Basra over the past few weeks against the British presence, but one official admitted: "We have seen nothing on this scale".

A senior military figure said: "We need to keep a sense of perspective. There has been an increased attempt by them to disturb things ahead of [the constitutional referendum on] 15 October. Where is the surprise in that? We have responded by arresting some of their people.

"There has been a bit of a backlash, which we are more than capable of handling. Basra is not descending into chaos. Five, six or 10 petrol bombs does not a crisis make. It is just a road bump."

Calling for Prime Minister Tony Blair to set a date for leaving Iraq, Labour MPs said the scenes from Basra had echoes of the killing of two British soldiers by a mob in Northern Ireland during the Troubles after they drove into a republican funeral cortège in March 1988.

- INDEPENDENT, REUTERS