Word: basra
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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...
...Iraq since the start of Brown's premiership on June 27 has been Armed Forces Minister Ainsworth. On July 24, Ainsworth assured the House of Commons Defense Committee that British forces in southeastern Iraq are unlikely to be reduced below 5,000 after Iraqi forces take over control of Basra. According to Air Chief Marshall Sir Jock Stirrup, head of the U.K. armed forces, that handover could come soon. "Our mission [in the South of Iraq] was to get the place and the people to a state where the Iraqis could run that part of the country, if they chose...
...forces needed in the central part of Iraq may be forced to redeploy if British troops depart. In his Aug. 22 radio interview, he said that the U.K. had "never had enough forces to truly protect the people" in the British zone of operations and that the situation around Basra "has been gradually deteriorating with the breakout of almost gangland warfare...
...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...
...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...