British forces join Basra fighting

[laststeamtrain]

Source: Guardian

British forces join Basra fighting

British ground forces today became involved in the fighting in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, firing artillery at a mortar team, a spokesman for the British army said.

The intervention, at the request of Iraqi forces, was the first of its kind in the current battles between Iraqi and coalition troops and militant followers of the radical Shia cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr.

Spokesman Major Tom Holloway said the firing, at a mortar team in the al-Halaf district of northern Basra, was successfully concluded, though details were not yet available.

British jets have been providing air support in the area but this was the first report of a ground engagement involving British forces.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/29/iraq.military?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews

[Cooley Hurd]

1. I don't think it's going to help. The Iraqi "Police" are melting away...

Juan Cole's reporting that large elements of the Iraqi Police are refusing to fight the Mahdi Army and, in some cases, joining them:

http://www.juancole.com/2008/03/police-mutiny-refuse-to-attack-sadrists.html

Despite the US intervention, government troops were unable to pierce Mahdi Army defenses or over-run their positions.

Al-Zaman says that the police force in Basra suffered numerous mutinies and instances of insubordination, with policemen refusing to fire on the Mahdi Army. The government response was to undertake a widespread purge of disloyal elements.

The Mahdi Army has also opened several other fronts in southern Iraq:

The Mahdi Army opened a number of new fronts in the fighting, in Nasiriya, Karbala, Hilla, and Diwaniya, as a means of reducing the pressure on its fighters in the holy city of Karbala. Local medical officials reported 36 dead in the fighting in Nasiriya.

The Mahdi Army used its position near Nasiriya to attack government troops attempting to go south to join the effort in Basra, and is said to have inflicted substantial casualties on them.

MOst of our troops are busy with the Mahdi Army in Sadr City. Not good news...

[Mika]

2. Damn, 5+ years later and the bombing campaign on cities is picking up.

:puke:

[saigon68]

4. Yes, and where is Gen. Curtis LeMay now that we need him ?

I'm sure that thought is going through gangster Cheney's mind


AUTHOR: Curtis Emerson LeMay (1906–90)

QUOTATION: My solution to the problem would be to tell them frankly that they’ve got to draw in their horns and stop their aggression, or we’re going to bomb them back into the Stone Age. And we would shove them back into the Stone Age with Air power or Naval power—not with ground forces.

ATTRIBUTION: General CURTIS E. LEMAY, Mission with LeMay: My Story, p. 565 (1965)

[NM Independent]

3. Uh Oh

This really doesn't sound good at all. Not even a little bit.