News Search Search this site or the web powered by FreeFind Site search Web search Story archive		April 22, 2004, Scotsman BOMBS ARE HARSH LESSON FOR POLICE FORCE THAT BELIEVED IT WAS WINNING Gethin Chamberlain THE young killer sitting on the floor of the cell in Basra's al-Maqal police station raised his eyes as the Iraqi policemen threw open the door to his fetid cell, but he made no move to get up. He was smoking a cigarette, casually, leaning his back against the wall, his legs out in front of him. Beside him, three other youths sat impassively against the same wall, eyeing the policemen with little interest. Until yesterday morning's bombings, the new forces of law and order in Basra were winning, or so they thought. The British troops training them up certainly thought they had turned the corner. At al-Maqal, the police had new equipment: radios so they could go out on patrol and new Mitsubishi police cars in smart blue and white livery. They had placed concrete planters at the front of the building to prevent car-bomb attacks and rolls of barbed wire protected the entrance to the police station. Nazar Tilepp Nama was picked up by the police a couple of days ago for the killing of a man eight months previously. His family turned him in, the police said, but Nazar seemed unconcerned. He had been firing his gun in the air when he lost control and killed someone, he said, but it was an accident. He shrugged. He was not bothered because his tribe would pay the blood money to the victim's family to get him out, he said. But the police shook their heads. Times had changed, they said. He was going to jail. The new Iraqi Police Service had been starting to make arrests before yesterday's events, taking on the kidnappers and hijackers who prey on drivers, and pursuing pirates up the Shatt al-Arab waterway. Their investigations were a little clumsy and their methods unorthodox: one British soldier watched open-mouthed as five officers drove into one police station in their new car and opened the boot to reveal the suspect they had arrested. The man was smoking a cigarette and sipping from a bottle of water. But at least it was a start. The police though, remain the weakest link in the security chain. There are still too many police officers who are happy to collect their pay only to disappear at the first sign of trouble, too many left overs from the old regime, and they do not have the discipline of the new Iraqi Civil Defence Corps (ICDC). While some officers at al-Maqal were making an effort, many could still be found in the days before yesterday's bombing lounging around outside the police station, chewing the fat with their friends, smoking and eating, reluctant to go out on patrol, unwilling to place themselves in any danger. The danger now is that the long-term impact of yesterday's bombings on the effectiveness of the new Iraqi police force and the willingness of its officers to risk their lives to do their job could, in the end, be more significant than the death toll. Southern Iraq may have hit the headlines less often than Fallujah and Baghdad, but that does not mean it has been quiet. As one British army officer in the south put it this week: "In a society like Iraq, there will always be violence." A briefing note on the security situation circulating among British troops this week spelled out the dangers. There were three major threats, it said: former regime sympathisers, foreign fights and religious extremists; in that order. On top of that, there were criminals who would not hesitate to attack coalition forces. The note said that there were known to be two al-Qaeda cells operating in the country. British forces, however, appeared more concerned about the threat posed by less well-known groups engaged in lower- profile attacks. Among potential hazards, it listed the Iranian army and coastguard, both of which had fired across the border; the Hizb al-Dawa Islamiya political party, which Sunni Muslims claimed had been mounting an ethnic-cleansing policy in the south, and the Badr Organisation, which had been attempting to operate as an illegitimate security force in the al-Faw area. The note also said that there was a danger of what it described as public order situations increasing over the summer months. Al-Zubayr, where a bomb went off outside the police academy yesterday morning, is a Sunni town, a small enclave in the Shia heartlands that proved to be a thorn in the side of British forces as they advanced on Basra last year. The day before the bombs went off, it had been packed with people, market stalls spilling out off the pavements and into the roads, the streets thronged with people. British troops thought they were making a difference: the base commander, Major Duncan Spinner, had handed over responsibility for security to the new ICDC and the police seemed to have a grip on the town. Further south, at Abu al-Khasib, Private Jason King had noticed the improvements in the police officers under his tutelage. "When we came here, they were a shambles, sitting in front of the police station, doing nothing," he said. "But we did a training day to get rid of some of them and now they are trying and because they have got flashy new police cars they enjoy driving around," he said. Their methods remain rusty, he said: they throw the bodies of the victims in the back of their vans and wander around the crime scene just picking up what they can see. Pte King's men were yet to make an arrest but they had shown a willingness to take on criminal gangs. "The other day I was out with them and we came across an ambush on Route 6 the main road north to Baghdad . We stopped three men and the police opened up on them. "The men had been parking a truck on the junction and there was a loaded RPG rocket propelled grenade and AK47s on the ground. Luckily we had come up behind them. They got away but at least we confiscated their weapons." The criminal gangs are a dangerous nuisance, but they are part of Iraqi life. What concerns British officers is whether the new security forces can be relied upon to take on determined terrorists motivated by politics or religion. Brigadier Nick Carter, the man in charge of British forces in Basra, has admitted that the police and the other security forces would still need the assistance of British troops to keep order after the 30 June handover. The question now is whether the attacks will strengthen their resolve, or destroy it. British commanders are already extremely worried about the danger of events further north in Iraq triggering Shia unrest and many officers from the ICDC and the police force have stated openly that they would not act against Muqtada al-Sadr's militia, but some of the ICDC, at least, appear to have the stomach for a fight. On a road next to a bridge on the edge of al-Zubayr on the day before the bombs exploded, Staff Sergeant Jummaa Dhiab and his men from the ICDC were stopping vehicles at an improvised checkpoint and checking them for weapons and contraband, patting down the drivers and asking them for information about anything suspicious. The bridge had been the scene of a number of attacks on troops and a favourite target for improvised explosive devices. The bombers favour detonators attached to old artillery shells packed with nuts and bolts and scrap metal, although they also attach claymore mines to telegraph poles by the roadside. Sgt Dhiab thought he and the rest of the new security forces were safe: he had no inkling of what was to come. Basra was different to Fallujah and Baghdad, he said, it was very safe. People there had been set free by British arrival, and he wanted to protect the people of Basra. "I want to kill every terrorist here," said Sgt Dhiab. "I want to stay here with the British force, the people of Basra love the British force. If you leave, I think there will be big trouble. People will be killed, Osama bin Laden's people will come. We need the British to stay." That evening, a few hours before the bombs went off, the soldiers were mulling over the security situation and marvelling at how they had escaped the worst of the attacks. "We've been very lucky," said one veteran sergeant, "but eventually our luck is going to run out. You know what they say - we have to be lucky all the time, they have to be lucky only once." Yesterday, luck ran out.
		................................................................................................................. Copyright ©2004 Gethin Chamberlain. All rights reserved.