US Training of Death Squads in Iraq? - War Is A Crime .org

In the confrontation that followed, shots were fired, and two Iraqi policemen were shot, one ofwhom later died. The Iraqi authorities blamed the men, reported to be undercover commandos,and arrested them.Mohammed al-Abadi, an official in the Basra governorate said that the two men had lookedsuspicious to police. "A policeman approached them and then one of these guys fired at him.Then the police managed to capture them," he said."They refused to say what their mission was. They said they were British soldiers and [suggestedthey] ask their commander about their mission," he added.The Britons were taken to an Iraqi police station, with local officials saying they had beeninformed that the men were undercover soldiers wearing plainclothes. British military officials,both in London and Iraq, began to investigate the arrests.As a behind-the-scenes operation by British diplomats charged with negotiating a release for thesoldiers started, tension spread across the city, where 8,500 British troops are based. A Britisharmy tank was surrounded.In a clear demonstration that the holding of the soldiers would not be tolerated, tanks movedquickly to encircle the police station. Amid the confusion, a crowd initially of about a dozen,which later swelled to hundreds, soon surrounded the tanks.Some said it was because the news had spread that British soldiers had been responsible for thedeath of an Iraqi policeman. One witness said Iraqis were driving through the streets withloudhailers demanding that the soldiers should be kept in the police station, and then jailed.Violence began to break out in the streets near to the prison. As tempers flared, rocks werethrown, and as tempers flared, the soldiers began to fear that they could no longer contain thesituation. What looked like petrol bombs began to fly through the air, and television footagerecorded one tank attempting to reverse away from the growing mob as the crowds around thetanks tightened their grip.Then, flames emerged from the top of one of the tanks. It remained unclear whether it was thevehicle itself on fire, or whether the flames were emerging from military equipment placed onthe back of the tank.One soldier decided to jump. His uniform on fire, the television footage shows him attempting tomake his escape, as the crowd pelts him with stones. Another soldier carrying a riot shield stoodby the tank. Last night the condition of the soldier was not known.In the rioting that ensued, British control of the city, in the Shia-dominated south of Iraq, beganto look seriously under threat. Two Iraqis were reported dead in the rioting, with 15 Iraqisreported injured, along with three British soldiers.210