And just what are the British doing in Basra.

I'm too lazy right now to go back and find the links, but remember the two British Intel/spec forces guys who were arrested by the Iraqis with significant amounts of explosives in their car after they had a shootout with Iraqi policemen?

The official government story from the British was that these two were interdicting the import of weapons from Iran and that the explosives were for tunnels. (A quick thumbnail guess from a UN map at relief web put Basra about 30 miles from the Iranian border.)

Then there was the odd non-specific mention of a british citizen, read non-military, being arrested in Iraq, also coincidentally in Basra.

Now this:(BBC)

The governor of Basra province has accused British forces of destabilising security following the arrest of 12 people over attacks against UK troops.

The men, some of whom are police officers, are still being questioned.

Governor Mohammed al-Waili said the British should have co-ordinated with him and with Iraqi security forces.

It's almost like the British are making efforts to provoke violence in Basra. Don't know, just getting some weird points along a line.


(By the way, a quick look at google maps looking for Basra, Iraq came back "we're sorry, we don't have maps at this zoom level for this region." Guess they took the military seriously when they complained that the powerful google maps was making satellite recon available to the insurgency. I'm generally for freedom of information, but this one I understand.)