News Search Search this site or the web powered by FreeFind Site search Web search Story archive		01-02-2006 Scotsman Analysis:Bombs blast myth of grateful natives taking tea with friendly forces By Gethin Chamberlain Chief News Correspondent BRITAIN is in a fix. Nearly three years on from the start of the war in Iraq, the deaths just keep on coming. In 2004, when the Black Watch ventured north into the so-called Triangle of Death, Britain lost 22 soldiers. Last year, the figure was 23. Each death is greeted with a sort of bemused surprise and a recitation of what has become a mantra: southern Iraq is a generally peaceful place, far removed from the daily violence visited on US forces further north. The Ministry of Defence does little to contradict this picture of southern Iraq as a benign region where British soldiers pootle about in soft hats and without body armour, drinking cups of tea with the grateful locals. Politically it has little choice. Britain is committed to staying in Iraq until the Americans decide that the time has come to cut their losses and get out. The government does not need the public's attention focused on an unpopular conflict. Yet the popular image is barely recognisable to those familiar with life in the region controlled by Multi National Division South East, the formal name given to the coalition forces in the area. Where once, immediately after the war, they could patrol in soft hats and no body armour, now British soldiers are fully kitted up and when they venture out, they do so in armoured vehicles. Basra erupted last September when British troops freed two SAS men arrested by Iraqi police; Amarah, where the 99th British soldier died, regularly flares up. Trouble can last for days or weeks; there are plenty of militias waiting for a chance to have a go at the British. Now throw into that equation the Iranians, who have been meddling in Iraq since the end of the war. Britain accused Iran of involvement in a succession of roadside bomb attacks last year, and relations between the two countries remain tense. In October Iran accused Britain of training mercenaries to operate inside its territory. Security sources in Iran claimed they were being trained by "special British commando forces known as the Desert Rats" at a base at Umm Qasr, the site of yesterday's bomb attack. Iran also backs the Badr Brigade, which is the dominant militia in the Umm Qasr area. Elsewhere, British forces have to contend with radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's al-Mahdi army. Both militias have a strong presence in Basra's police forces: British officers admit that parts of the police force "have gone bad". There have been clashes over the arrest of some of those police officers, and that appears to be what has provoked the latest unrest. A number of policemen are in custody in the al-Shu'aybah prison and in December nine prisoners were injured in clashes with their British captors. Last week British and other coalition forces arrested more than a dozen Iraqi officers. There were protests outside the British consulate and the Basra governor threatened to stop dealing with British forces unless they released the arrested men. Lithuanian and Danish troops were reported to be on full alert, fearing attacks on their forces. The latest attacks will have fuelled suspicion in the minds of the British that the Iraqi forces which they have devoted so much time to training up cannot be trusted. It is to these forces that they must hand over if they are to extricate themselves from the mess in which they find themselves. Their coalition partners want out: reports from Japan talk of a May withdrawal and the Italians say they will be gone by the end of the year. If they go, either other coalition countries have to send more troops to fill the gaps or they allow parts of the country to fall into the hands of militia-riddled Iraqi forces. It is hard to see how the British can bring this to a successful conclusion. Yet Tony Blair has no option but to press on, claiming that Iraq is getting better when the evidence suggests anything but. Mr Blair famously talked of Britain having to "pay the blood price" for its alliance with the United States. That price turns out to have been an average of nearly three dead soldiers a month since March 2003.
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