Mobs cheer British deaths, Basra slips out of control (Basra is NOT quiet)

[TexasLawyer]

Mobs cheer British deaths as Basra slips out of control
By Oliver Poole, Iraq Correspondent
(Filed: 08/05/2006)

It took the soldiers from 1 Bn Light Infantry all the night and most of yesterday to remove the wreckage of the Lynx helicopter that came down in Basra at the weekend, killing five British servicemen on board.

As they used heavy lifting equipment to separate twisted metal from the debris of a house that the aircraft had crashed into, military experts were trying to establish whether the crash was caused by mechanical failure or hostile fire. British officers believe the most likely cause was a lucky shot with a rocket-propelled grenade. But one thing is already clear: Basra is slipping out of the control of British forces.

Saturday's televised pictures of a local mob cheering the deaths, pelting British soldiers with stones and hurling petrol bombs at their armoured vehicles belie the Government's assurances that the political situation in Iraq - and particularly in the British sector - is steadily improving.

Soldiers on the ground have long known that the reality is grim. They regard many of Basra's elected leaders as crooks at best and agents of Iran at worst. The Shia militias that operate in the area do so with near impunity; good policemen are too frightened to confront them while the secular middle class now either dresses its women in headscarves or has moved abroad.

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/05/08/wirq08.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/05/08/ixnewstop.html

[bluestateguy]

1. Chickens come home to roost!

nt

[Erika]

2. W's mess

paid for our troops and the Iraqi people. See at www.icasualties.org

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. All that old psyops shit about the brits fixing Basra was pathetic

There was no way that that that thing was going to magically come out smooth while just north of there it is total chaos. It made no sense at all.

[saltpoint]

4. This latest incidence is going to further erode what little is left of

support for Tony Blair's government.

Tony made a poor choice in supporting Bush and now he's paying for it. The loss of life for no reason, and the taunting of the recovery crew, reinforce the cruelty and stupidity of occupying Iraq.

The coalition of the willing is a phrase we haven't heard for some time now.