Mon Dec 25, 6:27 AM ET
BASRA, Iraq (AFP) - British forces have shot dead seven Iraqi gunmen and demolished the headquarters of an Iraqi police unit in order to protect 127 prisoners they feared would be murdered by rogue officers......................
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On September 19 last year, in one of the most spectacular clashes of the British campaign, soldiers stormed a Basra Serious Crimes Unit compound after two special forces troopers were captured by militants.
The commandos, reportedly members of the Special Air Service on an undercover mission in civilian clothes, were freed by negotiation from a separate location, but the police base was badly damaged in the raid.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-09/19/content_3514065.htmIraqi police detain two British soldiers in Basra
www.chinaview.cn 2005-09-19 22:46:55
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. Enditem
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1753874,00.htmlAugust 28, 2005
SAS men get £100,000 to bribe Iraqi fighters
David Leppard
BRITISH Army officers in Iraq are being handed stashes of up to £100,000 in cash for “operational expenses” without formal controls on how it is spent.
The money is used by the SAS and other units to buy off leaders of the insurgency or to purchase weapons on the black market to avoid them passing into rebel hands.
......................................
The Sunday Times has obtained a photograph of a British officer smiling broadly as he holds nearly £60,000 worth of Iraqi dinars — still less than the maximum allowance. The cash, in crisp new notes, is neatly stacked in bundles that he holds to his chest.
The officer, said to be a captain in the SAS, told friends that the money — 158m Iraqi dinars — was part of a secret stash kept at the barracks at Basra Palace in southern Iraq.
He claimed it was used to bribe locals suspected of collaborating with rebels loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Al-Qaeda leader in Iraq, and to buy weapons on the black market.
“It’s held in a drawer in a room at the back of the palace. The SAS just walk in and take it out in a bag,” an insider said. The picture was taken in March this year and was circulated by the officer — whose name The Sunday Times is withholding for security reasons — in e-mails to his friends and family. There is no suggestion that he has acted improperly with the money.
http://www.almendhar.com/english_6551/news.aspxUpdated on 02/10/2005 08:05:52
SAS in secret war against Iranian agents
TWO SAS soldiers rescued last week after being arrested by Iraqi police and handed over to a militia were engaged in a “secret war” against insurgents bringing sophisticated bombs into the country from Iran.
The men had left their base near the southern Iraqi city of Basra to carry out reconnaissance and supply a second patrol with “more tools and fire power”, said a source with knowledge of their activities.
They had been in Basra for seven weeks on an operation prompted by intelligence that a new type of roadside bomb which has been used against British troops was among weapons being smuggled over the Iranian border. The bombs, designed to pierce the armour beneath coalition vehicles, are similar to ones supplied by Iran to Hezbollah, the Islamic militant group.
The Sunday Times
....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 Iraqis displayed photographs of the explosives, weaponry and several bags of equipment allegedly found in the boot of the men's unmarked car when they had been stopped at a checkpoint. ....There were also wigs, Arab headdresses and sophisticated communications equipment.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16678785%255E2703,00.htmlSAS fears sparked jail raid
Correspondents in Baghdad
September 22, 2005
BRITISH troops stormed an Iraqi police compound in Basra because they feared that two captured SAS soldiers were in danger of being summarily executed by Shi'ite militiamen.
"The intelligence we had received left us in no doubt these men were going to be killed," one senior military source said.
The men's covert mission and the forceful British reaction to their arrest has provoked popular anger in Basra, a southern city that has been relatively calm compared with Baghdad and Sunni areas of central Iraq controlled by US forces.
Responding to the Basra incident, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned Iran yesterday not to overplay its hand in southern Iraq, saying its active involvement among the majority Shi'ites there was "not helpful".
"They are interested, they are involved and they are active. And it's not helpful," Mr Rumsfeld said.
The Times
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