Soldier's stabbing shows real problems remain

The US Army and Iraqi security forces secure the site of a roadside bomb blast which damaged a US military vehicle in Basra, 550km southeast of Baghdad. Photo / AP

The stabbing was sudden and fierce, a man in the crowd lunging forward with a knife, thrust into the neck of a member of the Iraqi military.

After a stunned moment the soldier's comrades opened fire, cutting down the attacker. Round after round echoed through the streets scattering the crowd, parents snatching screaming toddlers into their arms, troops crouching around Humvees in full throttle.

The violent scene which played out in Basra on Wednesday was for some of us who witnessed it a brutal reminder of the vicious conflict which has cost so many lives since the United States-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the launch of one of the most emotive and controversial wars in recent British history.

The attack in Hayaniyah district was not a sign that Basra had slid back into its darkest, bloodiest days. What it did show, was that on the eve of Britain's final withdrawal from Iraq, very real problems remain in this fractured and traumatised society.

The Hayaniyah "incident" took place during one of the last patrols carried out by UK forces in Basra City.

The troops were on the ground alongside their Iraqi counterparts who will now formally take over security for the region. Also, there were a few Americans, about 5000 of whom will be replacing the last 3800 British soldiers whose long convoys have begun to disappear into the desert.

The man who carried out the stabbing had, according to Iraqis present, been shouting that he would kill an American. Hayaniyah was a stronghold of the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi army, the scene of frequent ambushes of British patrols and the launching pad for mortar and rocket attacks on the British headquarters at the airport.

The 36-year-old assailant had not had a job for 12 years and most of his family were unemployed, like 60 per cent of the male population of the area, and had loose connections in the past with the Shiite militias. At the Services' Hospital, where he was treated for bullet wounds, medical staff said they did not know whether he was "crazy", as the soldiers had claimed.

There is little doubt that a lot has changed for the better in Basra since the time when militias imposed their harsh Islamist rule in the city.

A year ago I could only travel around the city with extreme caution and then it was to hear people tell me how the unforgiving regime of the Mehdi army had added to the other hardships they faced. A hundred women a year were murdered in so-called honour killings while random Sunnis and Christians were executed by Shiite paramilitary death squads, often working with corrupt policemen.

The militias were eventually driven out in Operation Charge of the Knights, an offensive begun by the Iraqi Army on the orders of the Prime Minister, Nouri Maliki, and finished with American and British help after the government troops found themselves outgunned by the Mehdi army.

The British have faced criticism from many quarters, including some American officials, for not being tough enough with the militias, allowing them to take over in Basra, freeing prisoners in the hope of establishing truces. British officials and military commanders robustly deny this.

The departure of the militias has led to a degree of vibrancy in Basra. Floating restaurants moored off the Corniche do a brisk trade, new shopping centres are springing up and the airport has reopened to international flights.

- INDEPENDENT