British soldiers free two from Iraq jail
(AP)
Updated: 2005-09-20 10:38

According to the BBC, Defense officials insisted they had been talking to the Iraqi authorities to secure the release of the men, but acknowledged a wall was demolished as British forces tried to "collect" the two prisoners.

While the Shiite-dominated south of Iraq, where 8,500 British troops are based, has been far quieter than Sunni regions to the north, Britons have come under increasingly frequent attacks in recent weeks. The British military has reported 96 deaths since the war began in 2003.

That compares with the deaths of 1,899 Americans who are stationed nearer the violent insurgent regions around Baghdad and stretching west to the Syrian border.

The latest violence in the oil city of Basra, 340 miles south of the capital, began early Monday when local authorities reported arresting the two Britons, described as special forces commandos dressed in Arab clothing, for allegedly shooting two Iraqi policemen, one of whom died.

British armor then encircled the jail where the two Britons were held.

In a public humiliation, television cameramen from Arab satellite broadcasters in the Persian Gulf were allowed to photograph the two men, clearly Westerners who were by that time sitting on the floor in the jail in blue jeans and T-shirts, their hands tied behind their backs.

One of the men had a bandage covering most of the top of his head, the other had blood on his clothes. Television commentary identified them only as Britons.

A combo shows two British soldiers detained by Iraqi police sitting in a police station in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.[AFP]

Press Association, the British news agency, reported that three British soldiers were hurt during the violence, but said none of their injuries was life-threatening.

After nightfall, 10 British armored vehicles returned to the jail, crashed through walls and freed the two captives, witnesses said. An Associated Press reporter saw the vehicles smash into the jail.

While witnesses and officials said the British raid used "tanks," it was not clear whether the tracked vehicles were Challenger 2 Main Battle Tanks or Warrior Infantry Fighting Vehicles, both in use by British forces in Iraq. The Warrior seen earlier in the day was mounted with a 30 mm cannon.

In other violence in Basra, an Iraqi journalist working for The New York Times was killed after men claiming to be police officers abducted him from his home, the newspaper announced Monday. Fakher Haider, 38, was found dead in a deserted area on the city's outskirts Monday after his abduction late Sunday.

This past summer, freelance journalist Steven Vincent wrote a column in the Times accusing Basra police of being infiltrated by Shiite militiamen. Shortly thereafter, on Aug. 2, Vincent was abducted at gunpoint and his body was discovered that night on the side of the highway south of Basra. A senior British official said Islamic militants — and not Iraqi police — probably killed Vincent.

Elsewhere in Iraq on Monday, an estimated 3 million pilgrims — some carrying signs reading "We welcome martyrdom" — jammed the holy city of Karbala for a major Shiite festival in defiance of insurgent declarations of all-out sectarian war.

In Baghdad, an Iraqi court sentenced one of Saddam Hussein's nephews to life in prison for funding the country's violent insurgency and bomb-making after a previously unannounced trial. It was the first known trial of any of the former leader's family.

Militants waged more bloody attacks across the country Monday, killing 24 police and civilians and wounding 28.

But there were no attacks in Karbala, where security was so tight that authorities had banned vehicles from entering for several days before the holiday. Pilgrims were forced to pass through seven checkpoints inside the city before reaching holy shrines.

In an Internet posting, al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi purportedly issued a new vow, promising he would not attack followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and other Shiite leaders opposed to Iraq's U.S.-backed government.

Last Wednesday, after insurgent forces were routed from their stronghold in the northern city of Tal Afar, al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born Sunni Arab, declared all-out war on Iraq's majority Shiites.

But in the statement Monday on a Web site known for carrying extremist Islamist material, al-Zarqawi now appeared set on trying to split the Shiite community.

"Any Shiite group that condemns the government's crimes against the Sunnis in Tal Afar, and which doesn't provide help to the occupation by any means, will be exempted from the attacks of the mujahedeen," said the statement, which could not be immediately authenticated.