Word: basra
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...southern port city of Basra, the situation is complicated by a third party, Fadhila, which controls the local government. Basra may just be a metaphor for Iraq right now. There is no possible role for the U.S. military in the dispute there. The British are leaving, and the intra-Shi'ite battle is ramping up. The Iranians are trying to play all sides. "Under a different set of circumstances, you might argue - as some are now doing - that we need a Basra surge," Crocker told me. "But you'd need a fairly large force, and we don't have...
...latest terror to strike Iraq? Rumors of giant flesh-eating badgers in Basra. Locals even say the British army planted them. While the Brits have publicly denied the story, a new cell-phone video of the body of one of the clawed creatures has been fueling the rumor on the Internet...
...have duties to discharge and responsibilities to keep," said Brown, who emphasized that the 5,500 British soldiers there have moved from combat to "over-watch" of Iraqi forces in three of four provinces in the south of Iraq. The decision to change posture in the fourth area, Basra province, said Brown, "will be made on military advice of commanders on the ground...
...such central joint commitments as Iraq and Afghanistan, there is likely to be little change in policy. Brown said Monday that his government will report to Parliament on Iraq when it returns to session in October, setting the stage for a change in the posture of British troops in Basra. Will he pull out all 5,500 British troops? Unlikely. "We know we are in a common struggle and we know we have to work together, and we know we got to use all means to deal with it," said Brown. At the end of the press conference, a jovial...
Since Jan. 20, the military has begun to identify militants thought to have taken part in the attack. On March 22, the U.S. military announced the arrest of Qais Khazali and his brother Laith, saying the two were apprehended in Basra and Hillah for allegedly playing a role in the Karbala attack. Khazali was a protégé of al-Sadr's in 2004 and '05, but his relationship to al-Sadr and the Mahdi Army is unclear these days. Investigators who questioned Khazali say he was working closely with the Iran-backed Quds Force before his capture and was leading...