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10-7-2003 Scotsman The war is far from over, claims British officer By Gethin Chamberlain ONE of the most senior British officers in Iraq has admitted that war is far from over - and blamed Iranian interference for creating problems for coalition forces in the south of the country. Lieutenant Colonel Mark Castle, the commanding officer of the King's Own Scottish Borderers, claimed that there was evidence to suggest Iran was funding dissidents in Iraq, an allegation previously voiced by the Pentagon. But Lt-Col Castle, whose troops have taken over responsibility for the area in which six British military policemen were killed just over two weeks ago, said that Britain and the United States had to make a success of Iraq or risk losing face around the world. Speaking at the KOSB base in al-Amarah yesterday, Lt-Col Castle also revealed that British forces believe they know who was responsible for the killing of the military police officers and were stepping up attempts to bring them to justice. Although the American forces have borne the brunt of most of the attacks on coalition forces since George Bush, the US president, declared that the war in Iraq was over, British troops in the south of Iraq have reported an increasing number of attacks in recent weeks. Lt-Col Castle's comments may be seen as a sign of a growing acceptance of the risks faced by coalition forces as they attempt to fill the void left by the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime. He said he believed politicians had been too quick to declare that the conflict had finished. "The war is not really over," he said. "This is the point at which the coalition forces are at their weakest, the reorganisation phase, where they have no frontline to attack or defend and are spread thinly over a wide area. They have to be alert to the threat of attack. "In strict military terms, the war was over when George Bush said it was over. But what was the mission statement? We are finished when we can go; when Iraq is being governed by Iraqis." He added: "We are generally well-motivated people and I think sometimes we are surprised when people are not. There are people out there who are deliberately trying to subvert what we are trying to achieve." British forces based in al-Amarah have been trying to build up trust with local civic leaders by establishing a supervisory council to oversee the running of the area. But Lt-Col Castle accused Iran and former Baath Party members of attempting to undermine his work. "There are two groups with something to gain from instability here: the ex-Baathists and the Shia theocracy next door (Iran) and that tends to be where we believe much of the funding and training for dissent is coming from," he says. "The Foreign Office position has been quite softly, softly to Iran but, on the ground, we are seeing a lot of attempts to place Iranian-funded people on committees and large sums of money coming over the Iranian border. "The conclusion you have to draw from this is that there is some sort of organised attempt to undermine what we are doing here."
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................................................................................................................. Copyright ©2004 Gethin Chamberlain. All rights reserved. |
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