MAJJAR (Iraq): Iraqis said on Wednesday that anger over weapons searches in private homes triggered the killing of six British soldiers and the wounding of eight others in clashes around this southern Shia town this week.
But a British military spokesman in Iraq, Lieutenant-Colonel Ronnie McCourt, said the killing of the six military police in Majjar on Tuesday was unprovoked, adding: “It was murder.”
Witnesses and residents said four Iraqis were killed and 14 wounded in the clashes in Majjar, 30 kms south of the city of Amarah. The British soldiers, training local police, were killed inside a police station, McCourt said near Amarah, 350 kms southeast of Baghdad. He gave no other details.
In the second incident, seven troops were wounded when a helicopter was fired on as it went to aid a military convoy under attack. A British soldier in the convoy was wounded.
British forces denied they had issued a 48-hour ultimatum to local Iraqis to hand over the killers of the soldiers.
“I can categorically deny that ultimatum was ever set,” Captain Gemma Hardy, a press officer for British forces in Iraq, said. “That has not been issued.”
In London, Prime Minister Tony Blair said troops may have run into trouble as they tried to disarm local Iraqis.
“There is a background to do with the attempts by British forces to make sure the local population...were disarmed of those weapons,” Blair told parliament.
But Blair said it was too early to say what happened in Majjar, in what appeared to be the worst casualties suffered by British forces in a single “hostile fire” incident since the war to oust Saddam Hussein erupted on March 20.
Residents and witnesses said Tuesday’s clashes followed days of resentment over efforts to disarm Iraqis, and the shooting erupted after the British forces fired plastic bullets to try to control thousands of protesters.
The witnesses said the Iraqis, believing the British were firing live bullets, fired AK-47 assault rifles, killing the soldiers.
“I yelled at them because they pointed their rifles at a child. I told them ‘don’t do that’ but a soldier hit me with the butt of his rifle in the face,” one resident, who refused to give his name, said. “Then the shooting started.”
SIMMERING ANGER: Residents and witnesses said anger had been simmering as the British used sniffer dogs and aggressively searched local homes.
“These British soldiers came with their dogs and pointed weapons at women and children. As Muslims, we can’t accept dogs at our homes,” Rabee al-Malki said.
Muslims take offence over dogs in their homes, believing the animals to be impure.
Other residents criticised methods of the British occupiers, and alleged incidents involving soldiers during the searches.
“A British soldier held the underwear of a woman and stretched it. How can we accept this as Muslims and as Shias,” resident Faleh Saleem said.
McCourt, saying British forces were now on heightened alert in the region, acknowledged the Majjar deaths had changed the situation: “The emotion here is deep, deep disappointment among the soldiers. It has changed.
SABOTEURS: The top US administrator in Iraq said on Wednesday saboteurs linked to Saddam had cut off power lines to Baghdad, depriving the war-weary Iraqi capital of electricity.
Much of Baghdad has gone without power or water in recent days, adding to the hardship of people coping with severe unemployment and a lack of public safety.
“The problem is due to sabotage of the main power line between Beiji and Baghdad,” Paul Bremer, leader of the provisional authority in Iraq, told a news conference.
“Almost certainly the saboteurs are rogue Baathist elements. They are trying to hinder the coalition efforts to make life better for the average Iraqi person,” he said.—Reuters
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