Shi'ite fighters take on British Basra troops

11.00am

BASRA, Iraq - Iraqi militants and British troops have fought running battles in Basra as hundreds of Mehdi Army fighters took to the streets in a show of strength after suffering heavy losses from U.S. forces elsewhere.


At least two Iraqis were killed and four soldiers wounded in rifle and rocket-propelled grenade attacks by fighters loyal to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a British spokesman said on Saturday. One man had also been arrested, he added.

"We will press on with our operation until they leave all Iraqi cities," one of Sadr's militia commanders, Kassem Hassan, told Reuters. "We also demand the release of our prisoners."

But a British military spokesman described the violence as the "posturing of a few lawless individuals" and said the troops were keeping a discreet distance, waiting for it to pass. They held talks with local leaders. By evening, the city was calmer.
Large bands had roamed otherwise empty streets, accompanying fighters brandishing grenade launchers and AK-47s.

Three gunmen were killed and five soldiers hurt in Amara when British troops took over offices of Sadr's movement there, witnesses said. Two U.S. soldiers were killed and six Britons wounded by Sadr's men a week ago in Amara, north of Basra.

After a quieter day around Sadr's base in the holy city of Najaf, witnesses reported late afternoon clashes near Kufa, a few km (miles) away.

BUSH PLAYS DOWN ABUSE

The surge of violence to the south appeared partly a response to the crackdown on Sadr's movement by US forces closer to Baghdad over the past few days, although local people also said they were angered by mounting evidence of widespread abuse of Iraqi detainees by U.S., and possibly British, troops.

US President George W. Bush sought to minimise the scandal on Saturday as the "wrongdoing of a few". But despite apologies from Bush and his defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, few Iraqis are convinced. Evidence is mounting of widespread mistreatment.

Paul Bremer, the US administrator working to hand over power to a pro-American Iraqi government on June 30, said of the jailers: "They have done enormous damage to the way the Iraqi people look at American soldiers and the work they do."

The Basra violence came a day after a preacher from Sadr's movement told worshippers in the city he would pay a reward of $70 (39 pounds) for the capture of a British or American soldier -- and $170 for a woman soldier, he said could then be kept as a sex slave.

"If we capture a British woman soldier we will take her as a concubine and we will have the right to pleasure ourselves with her," said Kassem Hassan, the Mehdi Army fighter.

The British spokesman said troops were not taking any added precautions but, while returning fire if attacked, were keeping a low profile: "There's no point in aggravating people."

US troops backed by tanks seized key buildings in Najaf on Thursday. In Kerbala, another Shi'ite holy city, US armoured vehicles moved through town on Saturday in a show of force.

US commanders have been working with rival Shi'ite leaders to rein in Sadr's resistance movement, which swept southern Iraq a month ago. He is wanted for the murder of a fellow cleric. By U.S. accounts, dozens of his men have been killed in recent days, although Sadr's forces say those numbers are inflated.

ANGER OVER ABUSE

Iraqis gave short shrift to an apology offered by Rumsfeld when he faced a grilling in Congress over the prison abuse.

"Its good that he has apologised," said 30-year-old Baghdad shopkeeper Salah Wadie.

"But this won't heal the wounds. By committing these atrocities the Americans have broken the trust between them and the Iraqis and it's very difficult to rebuild."

Another soldier facing a criminal investigation over behaviour at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib jail was charged on Friday with abusing prisoners. Private First Class Lynndie England, 21, appeared prominently in photographs taken by fellow soldiers.

In some she grins and points at naked men's genitals. In one she poses holding a naked prisoner on a leash at the jail that was notorious for its torture chambers under Saddam Hussein.

Rumsfeld said more shocking images would come out.

Bush, who has seen his approval rating for the Iraq war plummet as he campaigns for re-election in November, played down the scandal in his weekly radio address: "What took place in that Iraqi prison was the wrongdoing of a few."

But critics point to broader evidence of abuse.

The Red Cross, in a rare departure, released part of a report it gave to Washington in February which said torture was widespread across US-controlled Iraq.

"The job of the MP (military police) was to keep them awake, to make it hell so they would talk," one of Private England's co-accused, Specialist Sabrina Harman, told the Washington Post.

The US army said it was investigating possible abuse by U.S. soldiers of 42 Iraqi civilians, besides the prison probe. It has admitted two murders in U.S. custody in Iraq.

A new Gallup Poll showed support for Bush's handling of the Iraq war at just 42 percent, down 19 points from January.

British troops faced fresh accusations that they also abused prisoners, with one former detainee quoted in a newspaper saying he was beaten viciously by laughing soldiers. Another newspaper said a fourth soldier attached to a regiment already under a cloud had come forward with charges of ill-treatment.

- REUTERS


Herald Feature: Iraq