ICG Learns "Lessons From Basra" - Report Assesses Failures of Operation Sinbad

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Source: AFP

The British experience in Basra, far from being a model to be replicated in the rest of Iraq, is an example of what to avoid, according to a report released Monday by the International Crisis Group.

Where Is Iraq Heading? Lessons from Basra examines the city's descent into chaos under British occupation, outlining lessons for Baghdad and the nation as a whole. Coalition forces there already implemented a security plan in many ways similar to the current "surge" in the capital and its environs. As in Baghdad, one of the putative goals was to pave the way for a takeover by Iraqi forces. Today, however, Basra is controlled by militias which are even more powerful than before.

“With renewed violence and instability, Basra illustrates the pitfalls of a transitional process that, instead of building legitimate institutions, has led to collapse of the state apparatus”, says Crisis Group Senior Analyst Peter Harling. “Fierce intra-Shiite fighting also disproves the notion of an Iraq neatly partitioned between three homogenous communities”.

In the overall assessment of recent developments in Basra, the ICG reports:

Basra’s political arena is in the hands of actors engaged in bloody competition for resources, undermining what is left of governorate institutions and coercively enforcing their rule. The local population has no choice but to seek protection from one of the dominant camps. Periods of stability do not reflect greater governing authority so much as they do a momentary -- and fragile -- balance of interests or of terror between rival militias. Inevitably, cycles of brutal retaliatory violence re-emerge.

Read more: http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/3322

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1. Report finds Basra problems bode ill for U.S. Iraq strategy

Report finds Basra problems bode ill for U.S. Iraq strategy
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Violence and infighting among Shi'ites in Basra are a warning that a last ditch U.S. plan to improve security in Iraq is badly flawed, a think-tank said in a report.

"The answer to Iraq's horrific violence cannot be an illusory military surge that aims to bolster the existing political structure and treats the dominant political parties as partners," said the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.

The report, issued late on Monday, said that Operation Sinbad, in which British forces tried to tackle armed militias and support Iraqi security forces in the southern oil-rich city of Basra, offered important lessons to learn from.


The current U.S. strategy in Baghdad -- a four-month-old offensive aimed at ridding neighbourhoods of gunmen, deploying soldiers to hold the areas and then reviving economic activity -- appears similar to the British plan launched last September.

Sinbad initially helped calm Basra, Iraq's second largest city and its economic hub, but violence has since mounted and British forces have come under increasing attack there.

more:http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyid=2007-06-26T113316Z_01_BUL619621_RTRUKOC_0_UK-IRAQ-BASRA.xml