[Independent] Iraq Insurgents open 'southern front' with deadly car-bomb in Basra

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Sep 8, 2005, 8:30:47 PM9/8/05
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The Independent, London

Insurgents open 'southern front' with deadly car-bomb in Basra

By Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad

Published: 09 September 2005

A series of deadly bomb attacks in and around the city of Basra this
week has undermined the British Army's claim to have largely kept
southern Iraq free from the violence engulfing the rest of the country.

Sixteen people were killed and 21 injured when a car bomb exploded
outside a restaurant near a market in the centre of Basra on
Wednesday. Two police cars and several shops were destroyed.

On the same day a roadside bomb killed four American private security
guards when the explosion threw the SUV in which they were travelling
into a ravine where it landed on its roof. The men were working for
the US consulate. Al-Qa'ida militants based in Iraq claimed
responsibility in a statement on the internet.

Earlier in the week, two British soldiers were killed by a bomb as
they travelled west of Basra, a mostly Shia city of 1.5 million people.

The most likely explanation for the rise in violence in the area is
that al-Qa'ida wants to show that it can strike anywhere in Iraq. The
restaurant blown up was in Hayaniyah market in a Shiah district of
Basra, which is in keeping with al-Qa'ida's policy of attackingplaces
where Shia civilians are known to gather.

British authority in the far south of Iraq has been looking
increasingly shaky in recent weeks as Shia militias, often in control
of local police, gain in strength. There has been a spate of
assassinations of Sunni political leaders and former Baath party
members in the city by men wearing police uniforms and using vehicles
with police markings.

The most powerful militia is the Badr Brigade (renamed the Badr
Organisation and supposedly disarmed). It is the military arm of the
Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which is the largest
Shia party and which did well in the elections in January. The Army
of Mehdi, which is loyal to the radical cleric Muqtada Sadr, is also
influential.

Local officials acknowledge that three-quarters of the 13,600 police
force in Basra gave their loyalty to the religious parties. More than
65 assassinations, mostly against Sunni, have been carried out in
Basra since May. An American journalist who wrote about the
infiltration of local police by the militias was murdered, apparently
by policemen. If the Sunni community feels under threat from Shia
militants then it may, as in Baghdad, become more inclined to support
the insurgents.

There are an increasing number of sectarian killings all over Iraq.
The police in Baghdad said yesterday they had found 15 bodies dressed
in civilian clothes near the town of Mahmoudiyah, a militant Sunni
stronghold 20 miles south of Baghdad. All had been shot dead. Two
other bodies, blindfolded and handcuffed, were found closer to
Baghdad. Last month 36 Sunnis arrested in Baghdad by Shia security
men were found dead near the Iranian border.

US military operations frequently exacerbate sectarian tensions. In
the city of Fallujah, much of which was destroyed when US Marines
stormed it last November, insurgent fighters are reasserting control
because of the arrival of Shia units of the Iraqi army, which are
detested by local people. In the Sunni city of Tikrit, US troops are
being reinforced by mainly Kurdish Iraqi army soldiers.

In the far north of the country, US and Iraqi army units are
surrounding the Turkoman town of Tal Afar in the far north of Iraq
close to the Syrian border, which they say is a stronghold for
insurgents. Most of the population have fled. An Iraqi army captain,
Mohammed Ahmed, said: "Our forces arrested 150 non-Iraqi Arabs
yesterday in addition to 50 Iraqi terrorists with fake documents as
they were trying to flee the city with civilian families."

Tal Afar is in an area that is contested between Kurds, Arabs and
Turkomans. The Turkomans say Kurdish leaders are manipulating US
officers to get them to advance Kurdish policies.

© 2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd.

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