Word: basra
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...February 22, 2006: The bombing of a sacred Shi'ite shrine in Samarra sparks sectarian violence that leaves more than 200 dead, including a group of foreign Arab prisoners in Basra...
...reactions were swift and violent. Mobs from the predominantly Shi'ite Shu'lah neighborhood in western Baghdad attacked Sunni mosques in Ghazaliya, a nearby Sunni area. Gunmen were out on the streets of Sadr City, home base for rebel cleric-and parliamentary power broker-Moqtada al-Sadr. In Basra, there were reports of heavy street fighting between Sunni and Shi'ite gunmen. Elsewhere, Sunni political party offices were attacked...
...British media made a great deal of the contrasts between the British and American areas of control. While American soldiers were dealing with a nascent insurgency in Baghdad, forced to wear full body armor (when available) and shelter behind high blast walls, their British counterparts were patrolling Basra in soft caps and smilingly accepting cups of tea from roadside vendors. This bonhomie was claimed to be the result of that superior understanding of Iraqi culture. Never mind that managing mostly Shi'ite Basra was a picnic compared to running the much more heterogeneous and volatile Baghdad...
...These days, Basra is practically run by Shi'ite militias, with the British only intervening when their own soldiers get into trouble - as they did last fall, when two soldiers were "arrested" by militiamen, requiring the British to mount a rescue operation. I have not been to Basra for some time, but friends there routinely report instances of British soldiers behaving in a hostile manner, even with those once-friendly tea vendors...
...Insurgents have kidnapped 36 reporters since April 2004, when abductions surged, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Most were released, but RAI correspondent Enzo Baldoni, an Italian, was killed in August 2004. Steven Vincent, an American freelancer, was killed in Basra in August 2005. The number of Iraqi journalists killed or kidnapped is much higher. ?Baghdad has become a deathtrap for journalism,? said Aidan White, General Secretary for the International Federation of Journalists. ?No journalist is safe once they take to the streets...