Word: basra
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...famous freckly face may soon head to Iraq. Just as Prime Minister Tony Blair announces plans to gradually withdraw British troops, PRINCE HARRY, 22, is set to embark on a tour of duty in Basra, according to sources in Whitehall. Britain's Ministry of Defence dismisses the reports, but Harry's past comments suggest that he'll report with his regiment. "There's no way I'm going to put myself through [Britain's military academy] Sandhurst and then sit on my arse back home while my boys are out fighting," Harry said in a 2005 interview. Should he serve...
...rift with Washington, Blair averred that these moves would be in tune with the new-minted policy of the Bush Administration and were "informed by Baker-Hamilton." The situation in southern Iraq "has never presented anything like the challenge of Baghdad" and had now reached a point in Basra - however battered the city and its economy, however uncertain its security - where the British-led coalition forces there could contemplate handing over control to the Iraqi army. "What all of this means is not that Basra is how we want it to be but that the next chapter of its history...
...securing the Iraq-Iran border and on supporting any operations against extremist groups. A troop presence will be maintained into 2008. But, said Blair, it was important for Iraqis to see that foreign troops would not be stationed in the country for longer than necessary - and thus the Basra example could even give a boost to the Bush plan...
...knows that he won't be there to oversee the final departure of British forces from Iraq. The former Europe Minister Denis MacShane, leaving the chamber at the end of the question-and-answer session, welcomed "the reduction of British troops in Iraq" and "a mission partly accomplished in Basra," but suggested that aspects of the insurgency in the country could never be appeased. Moreover he foresees a need for fresh commitments by Britain and other powers as terrorism and tyranny afflict populations in Africa and the Middle East. "Blair will be gone in three months' time," he said...
...capacities. Aside from arming the opposition, the IRGC is capable of doing serious damage to our logistics lines. I called up an American contractor in Baghdad who runs convoys from Kuwait every day and asked him just how much damage. "Let me put it this way," he said. "In Basra today the currency is the Iranian toman, not the Iraqi dinar." He said his convoys now are forced to pay a 40% surcharge to Shi'a militias and Iraqi police in the south, many of whom are affiliated with IRGC...