|
Iraqis protest alleged British beatings
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-15 09:06
BASRA, Iraq - More than 1,000 protesters burned a British flag Tuesday and
the regional administration in Iraq's main southern province severed all ties
with British authorities over video footage showing British soldiers allegedly
beating and kicking Iraqi youths.
Iraqis rally in
protest at the British military presence in Basra, Iraq's second-largest
city, 550 kilometers (340 miles) southeast of Baghdad, Tuesday, Feb. 14,
2006. Authorities in the southern Iraqi province severed all ties with
Britain amid the furor of the alleged British military abuse of several
Iraqi males in Amarah, 290 kilometers (180 miles) southeast of Baghdad,
two years ago.[AP] |
|
In London, the British Defense Ministry announced the arrest of two more
people in connection with the images. Another person — apparently the man who
shot the video — was arrested Monday.
Protesters, many of them supporters of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr,
marched on the British Consulate in Basra, where they burned a British flag and
shouted slogans against the alleged abuse of the youths during a riot Jan. 10,
2004, in the southern city of Amarah.
Protesters held banners reading "No, no to Tony Blair" and "Try the British
soldiers involved in this aggression."
With outrage over the video mounting, the governing council for Basra
province, which includes Iraq's huge southern oil fields, announced it was
cutting all ties with British military and civilian operations in the area,
headquarters of Britain's more than 8,000-member military contingent in Iraq.
The Basra police chief, Maj. Gen. Hassan Suwadi, said Iraqi security forces
would cease joint patrols with the British military in the province to protest
the alleged abuse.
"We condemn the abuse of the British forces and demand the British government
to adopt legal procedures as soon as possible to punish its soldiers who carried
out the abuse," Suwadi told The Associated Press.
Elsewhere, gunmen killed 11 Shiite farmers north of Baghdad, including eight
members of one family, officials said. A U.S. Marine was killed and six
coalition personnel were wounded in two attacks in Baghdad.
|
