"Premature withdrawal " .... Amara up in arms / flames

Amara, administrative centre of the Maysan province, Iraq, on the banks of the Tigris, south of Basra (pop. 300,000) and 50km from the Iranian border, was surrendered to Iraqi military control by Britain this August. It is a city used to religious and sectarian strfe and killing. Shi'ite Sadrist "Mahdi Army" militias (with 5 members in the Iraqi Government) fight with Badr brigades and both fight the Police and Iraqi Army for control of the city.

Tensions have grown since the abduction of five men earlier this week, including the brother of a local Mahdi leader, were allegedly abducted - some say arrested - by police on suspicion of involvement in the killing of a senior police intelligence officer Qassim al-Tamimi, said to be a Badr brigade member.

These erupted today resulting, Riyadh Saed, the duty physician at the city's main hospital reported there were 15 dead and 59 seriously injured. See BBC video of the fighting.

A British rapid reaction force stands by in Basra on the historic military principle , "hold me back befire I 'it 'im" stance, ready but unwilling to intervene. Further reports speak of the potential of a massive uprising in Baghdad as Ramadan tensions work themselves out.

Lord Patel wrote about the extraordinary British forces departure from Amara on Sunday, September 3
"Far called, our Army melts away ....."

"British forces evacuated the military headquarters without coordination with the Iraqi forces," Dhaffar Jabbar, spokesman for the Maysan governor, told Reuters on Thursday, as looters began moving into the camp in the wake of the British withdrawal......

Not quite the orderly handover to the Iraqi Government forces peddled so assiduously by HMG. Please read the full article to get the full flavour of this extraordinary military manouvre.

Those with a long memory will remember how it was reported in May 2004 how Sheikh Abdul-Satter al-Bahadli "a close adviser to Muqtada al-Sadr" , delivered a sermon at a Basra mosque waving an assualt rifle and called on supporters to launch a jihad against British troops.

Waving documents and photographs of Abu Ghraib women prisoners he claimed were of 3 Iraqi women being raped at British-run prisons, he said $350 would be given to anyone who captured a British soldier and $150 for killing one. He told the 3,000 worshippers that anyone who captured a woman soldier would be allowed to keep her as a slave.

Common Ills has a good posting on the Amara situation today