PrairiePundit

Guardian: House prices have doubled in a matter of months. Restaurants are opening alongside the waterside corniche. Oil-rich Kuwaitis are beginning to move in, and trade at the port is booming. Welcome to Basra. This is the remarkably rosy picture of life in Iraq's second city outlined by a senior British military figure today. Major General Barney White-Spunner, just returned from commanding British forces in southern Iraq, claims Basra has been transformed. Less than a year ago, British soldiers were being attacked day and night. A week ago, White-Spunner says, he was having supper in a restaurant on Basra's corniche by the Shatt al-Arab waterway. "Property prices have more than doubled since March. One house is going for £90,000, a threefold increase," he says, referring to the now desirable stretch of the city's riverbank walkway. He talks of the "return of the diaspora", with Christians and Sunnis coming back to their Shia-dominated city. Soldiers ...

Times: A secret deal between Britain and the notorious al-Mahdi militia prevented British Forces from coming to the aid of their US and Iraqi allies for nearly a week during the battle for Basra this year, The Times has learnt. Four thousand British troops – including elements of the SAS and an entire mechanised brigade – watched from the sidelines for six days because of an “accommodation” with the Iranian-backed group, according to American and Iraqi officers who took part in the assault. US Marines and soldiers had to be rushed in to fill the void, fighting bitter street battles and facing mortar fire, rockets and roadside bombs with their Iraqi counterparts. Hundreds of militiamen were killed or arrested in the fighting. About 60 Iraqis were killed or injured. One US Marine died and sevenwere wounded. US advisers who accompanied the Iraqi forces into the fight were shocked to learn of the accommodation made last summer by British Intelligence and elements of al-Mahdi Army, th...

Independent on Sunday: British commanders in Iraq made an astonishing secret deal with a Shia prisoner to withdraw from Basra which left the city at the mercy of criminal gangs, one of the UK's senior military officers serving in Iraq has said. Colonel Richard Iron said the "understandable but inexcusable" deal was one of several "terrible mistakes" the British have made during their occupation of the south of the country. In an exclusive interview with The Independent on Sunday, Col Iron, who leads the teams mentoring the Iraqi army in central Basra, said the deal had included the release of 120 prisoners and had the effect of leaving the city in a lawless state. "We have made some terrible mistakes in Iraq and it is only by talking about them that we will learn from them," said Col Iron, an expert on anti-insurgency. "Last autumn we made a mistake which was understandable but not excusable. A Shia prisoner, Ah...

Washington Post: The Iraqi army soldiers walked with confidence into this city's notorious Five Miles neighborhood. Shiite militiamen once greeted them with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. Now, smiling children waved, and a nearby market pulsed with energy. "Nobody before was able to get in here," said Col. Bilal al-Dayni, surveying the battle-scarred landscape. For Dayni, a barrel-chested former officer in Saddam Hussein 's military, the scene was a vindication. The Americans disbanded Hussein's army after the 2003 invasion. Under British administration, Basra fell into the grip of zealots and gunmen. But nearly three months after the Iraqi government launched an offensive to reinstall authority, about 30,000 Iraqi soldiers control Basra, providing a glimpse of what might happen when the bulk of U.S. troops depart Iraq. "The Iraqi army is like an antique vase," said Dayni, beaming. "When you remove the dust, you will find a diamond....

Sunday Telegraph: The allegations are contained in a confidential "field report" written by a British officer who served in Basra during one of the most dangerous periods of the conflict. The report, which has never been made public, shows the full level of Iran's involvement in the insurgency for the first time. The document states that the Jaish al-Mahdi (JAM) – also known as the Mahdi Army – one of the most violent insurgent groups operating in Basra, used money from Iran to recruit and pay young unemployed men up to $300 (£150) a month to carry out attacks against the British. The findings have been passed to the highest levels in the military. The leak comes at a time of rising tension between Iran and the international community, as Tehran continues to stonewall UN inquiries into allegations that it has carried out research to develop a nuclear weapon. The report, "Life Under Fire in the Old State Building", details th...

CNN: The man, blindfolded and handcuffed, crouches in the corner of the detention center while an Iraqi soldier grills him about rampant crimes being carried out by gangs in the southern city of Basra. "How many girls did you kill and rape?" the soldier asks. "I raped one, sir," the man responds. "What was her name?" "Ahlam," he says. Ahlam was a university student in the predominantly Shiite city of Basra. The detainee said the gang he was in kidnapped her as she was leaving the university, heading home. "They forced me, and I killed her with a machine gun, sir," he says. The suspect, who is unshaven and appears to be in his 20s or 30s, was arrested by Iraq security forces after they retook most of Basra in April. CNN was shown what authorities say was his first confession. On it are the names of 15 girls whom he admitted kidnapping, raping and killing. The youngest girl on the list was just 9 years old. Basra turned into a ba...

Telegraph: Commanders say the joint operations have, in a matter of weeks, brought a measure of normality to a city that had fallen under the sway of powerful criminal gangs and the Iranian-backed fighters. But the patrols represent a reverse in policy by British forces, which retreated last year from Basra under a barrage of fire that pushed the UK’s casualty rate temporarily above the Americans. A botched attempt in March by Iraqi soldiers to take control of Basra pressed the British back to the city centre, following their withdrawal to Basra Airbase in December. The British military is now operating from a forward base at the Shatt al-Arab Hotel. Officers hardened by the demands of foot patrols in Northern Ireland are once again leading raw Iraqi recruits past shops and hairdressing salons where posters proclaim loyalty to Moqtada al-Sadr, the Shia cleric whose Mahdi army led attacks on the British. On a patrol which was attended by The D...

NY Times: Three hundred miles south of Baghdad, the oil-saturated city of Basra has been transformed by its own surge, now seven weeks old. In a rare success, forces loyal to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki have largely quieted the city, to the initial surprise and growing delight of many inhabitants who only a month ago shuddered under deadly clashes between Iraqi troops and Shiite militias. Just as in Baghdad, Iraqi and Western officials emphasize that the gains here are “fragile,” like the newly planted roadside saplings that fail to conceal mounds of garbage and pools of foul-smelling water in the historic port city’s slums. Among the many uncertainties are whether the government, criticized for incompetence at the start of the operation, can maintain the high level of troops here. But in interviews across Basra, residents overwhelmingly reported a substantial improvement in their everyday lives. “The circle of fear is broken,” said Shaker, owner of a floating restaurant on B...

Times: Young women are daring to wear jeans, soldiers listen to pop music on their mobile phones and bands are performing at wedding parties again. All across Iraq’s second city life is improving, a month after Iraqi troops began a surprise crackdown on the black-clad gangs who were allowed to flourish under the British military. The gunmen’s reign had enforced a strict set of religious codes. Yet after three years of being terrified of kidnap, rape and murder – a fate that befell scores of other women – Nadyia Ahmed, 22, is among those enjoying a sense of normality, happy for the first time to attend her science course at Basra University. “I now have the university life that I heard of at high school before the war and always dreamt about,” she told The Times . “It was a nightmare because of these militiamen. I only attended class three days a week but now I look forward to going every day.” She also no longer has to wear a headscarf. Under the strict Islamic rules imposed by the...

AP /Washington Times: A kidnapped British journalist was rescued by Iraqi troops today after two months in captivity in the southern city of Basra, a military commander said. Richard Butler, who worked for CBS News, was found with a sack over his head and his hands tied inside a house in Basra, Lt. Gen. Mohan al-Fireji said. He said Butler was in good condition. Butler was kidnapped along with his Iraqi interpreter on Feb. 10 in Basra. The interpreter was later released. Iraqi police and witnesses said the two men were seized by about eight masked gunmen wielding machine guns who stormed a hotel in the city. CBS confirmed the journalist's identity but did not immediately provide other details. Butler was found during an Iraqi military operation in the Jibiliya area, a Shi'ite militia stronghold in Basra, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad. ... Or will they bitterly cling to their illusions that the Iraqi forces lost?

Washington Times: Tribal leaders in southern Iraq are starting to push back against Iranian-supported militias in Basra, cracking their hold over the economically crucial province, Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker said yesterday at two separate roundtable interviews with reporters. The militia led by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr "is something that has to be dealt with," said Gen. Petraeus at a meeting with reporters at the Pentagon. "The population has turned against the militia in most areas in Basra. Interestingly, it has turned against them in a number of areas in Baghdad as well," the top U.S. commander in Iraq said, though he cautioned that turning against the militias does not necessarily mean that the population "will act on it." Mr. Crocker said he had returned from a recent visit "sobered by the extent ... the militias had free rein in Basra." The U.S. envoy added that he got "an earful" of complain...

Times: In Basra the signs of the feared militia are slowly receding. For the first time in years alcohol vendors are selling beer close to army checkpoints, and ringtones praising the rebel cleric Hojatoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr are vanishing from mobile phones. Music shops are once again selling pop tunes instead of the recorded lectures of Shia ayatollahs. But, as the city cautiously comes back to life after an offensive by Iraqi troops backed by hundreds of US soldiers, there is a lingering resentment towards the British Army. Many here blame the British for allowing the al-Mahdi Army and other militias to impose a long reign of terror on the once cosmopolitan city. The battle for Basra is still not over. An American airstrike yesterday killed another six men who had been attacking Iraqi troops from the militia's hold-out areas, which the Army has so far been unable to penetrate. Support is, though, slowly building for Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, who led his tro...

Amir Taheri: A GAMBLE that proved too costly. That's how analysts in Tehran describe events last month in Basra. Iran's state-run media have de facto confirmed that this was no spontaneous "uprising." Rather, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) tried to seize control of Iraq's second-largest city using local Shiite militias as a Trojan horse. Tehran's decision to make the gamble was based on three assumptions: * Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki wouldn't have the courage to defend Basra at the risk of burning his bridges with the Islamic Republic in Iran. * The international force would be in no position to intervene in the Basra battle. The British, who controlled Basra until last December, had no desire to return, especially if this meant getting involved in fighting. The Americans, meanwhile, never had enough troops to finish off al-Qaeda-in-Iraq, let alone fight Iran and its local militias on a new front. * The Shiite clerical l...

Strategy Page: The battles with the Shia militias resulted in neighborhoods close to the Baghdad coming back under government control. U.S. forces have been helping with clearing these areas of any weapons or lingering gangsters. With that, the Shia terrorists now have a much more difficult time getting close enough to use mortars or rockets. The longer range 122mm (20 kilometers, versus six kilometers for the 107mm weapons and mortars) rockets can still reach the Green Zone from areas still controlled by militia groups, but few of these larger (nine feet long and 150 pounds) rockets have been encountered. The Mahdi army lost 571 killed, 881 wounded, 490 captured, and 30 surrendered, in a week of fighting. The army and police lost over 500 to desertions, which is a much lower percentage of these losses than in previous operations. One of the army brigades had only recently finished training. To everyone's surprise, the brigade did not fall apart. The Mahdi army ...

Jack Kelly: IN THE opening game of the baseball season between the Boston Red Sox and the Oakland Athletics in Japan, 11 runs were scored. That lead would be unsatisfying to most sports fans because it doesn't indicate which team won. But it is very like most of the reporting of battles in Iraq: "The deadliest clashes were in Basra, where at least 47 people were killed and 223 wounded in the two days of fighting," wrote the AP's Kim Gamel. Ms. Gamel was writing about the opening clashes of Operation Knight's Charge, the effort by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to take control of Iraq's second most populous city from Iranian-backed militias, chiefly the Mahdi Army nominally headed by the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Fighting subsided after al-Sadr called for a cease-fire last weekend. The cease-fire "is seen as a serious blow" to Mr. al-Maliki because "he had vowed that he would see the Basra campaign through to a military victory,...

The NY Times makes much of the desertion of Iraqi forces in the recent Basra battle. Buried in the story is a paragraph which adds perspective. ... A British military official said that Mr. Maliki had brought 6,600 reinforcements to Basra to join the 30,000 security personnel already stationed there, and a senior American military official said that he understood that 1,000 to 1,500 Iraqi forces had deserted or underperformed. That would represent a little over 4 percent of the total. ... However disappointing those desertions are, they did not have a significant effect on the army's ability to perform and follow orders. Yes, some commanders were among those who failed to perform or refused to perform. Obviously they were replaced as they should have been. Again, replacing commanders in a battle is not unheard of. American forces were quick to do just that in the World War II battles in Europe and Asia. What Iraq has learned from this episode is who they can count on and who t...

Max Boot: CRITICS of the Iraqi army's recent assault on militias in Basra have focused on the Maliki government's motives. But the real concern should be the competence - or lack thereof - it displayed. Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies writes that the "fighting, which the government portrays as a crackdown on criminality, is better seen as a power grab, an effort by [Prime Minister Nouri al-] Maliki and the most powerful Shiite political parties to establish their authority over Basra and the parts of Baghdad." Vali Nasr of Tufts University says "that Maliki is completely irrelevant. The real show is between Hakim and Sadr." That would be Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq and its militia, the Badr Organization, vs. Moqtada al-Sadr, head of the Sadr Trend and its militia, the Jaish al Mahdi. It is usually a safe bet to look for hidden motives in the morass of Iraqi politics - but in this...

This headline in the NY Times reminded me of something in the new Counterinsurgency Field Manual . U.S. Cites Planning Gaps In Iraqi Assault On Basra Paragraph I-154 on page 49 is titled: THE HOST NATION DOING SOMETHING TOLERABLY IS NORMALLY BETTER THAN US DOING IT WELL The caps were in the original.

Washington Post: A fragile cease-fire in the southern city of Basra appeared to hold Wednesday, despite isolated clashes between Iraqi security forces and local militias and a roadside bombing that targeted an Iraqi military convoy. An Iraqi Defense Ministry official was wounded and two of his bodyguards were killed when a bomb exploded near their convoy in the Hayaniyah neighborhood, according to an Iraqi police official in Basra who spoke on condition of anonymity. Two other Iraqi military officials were wounded during clashes in another part of the city, Qibla, as they fought members of the Mahdi Army militia, the official said. On March 25, Iraqi forces launched a broad offensive against militias that controlled large portions of the oil-rich port city, drawing fierce resistance that lasted until Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Sunday ordered his Mahdi Army to stand down, apparently in exchange for guarantees that his forces would not be targeted. Some Shiite politic...

Daniel Henninger: Is it uncharitable to suggest that when the fighting erupted in Basra last week between Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army and the U.S.-trained Iraqi army, some opponents of the war hoped it would become George Bush's Tet Offensive? That is, a battle whose military details are largely irrelevant, but whose sudden violence "proves" to voters that a U.S. military commitment is unwinnable and should be abandoned? It was hard not to miss the antiwar spin coming off reports of the fighting, after a year of unmistakable gains from the Petraeus surge strategy. An Obama foreign policy adviser, Denis McDonough, said it "does raise a handful of concerns as it relates to the surge and, more importantly, about the prospect of political reconciliation." The New York Times noted that Hillary Clinton, campaigning in Pennsylvania, said the Bush commitment to keeping up troop levels in Iraq is a "clear admission that the surge has failed to accomplish its g...