Basra ceasefire leaves Mahdi Army unbowed

Muqtada al-Sada has ordered his Shia militia Mahdi Army off the streets of Basra after a six day battle in which 163 people were killed and about 500 injured. Al Sada’s militiamen had engaged in long running gun battles with the Iraqi Army and police and the violence has spread to other southern cities and Baghdad. Sami al-Askari, an adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, claims most of the Basra area is now under government control. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is now in Basra and had vowed to stay there until the militia was crushed. But now al-Askari said al-Maliki will return “soon” to Baghdad.

But even members of al-Maliki’s own government say that the Mahdi Army has withstood the US-supported Iraqi assault. Last week, Iraq’s defence minister, Abdul Kadir al-Obeidi, conceded that the government’s military efforts in Basra have met with far more resistance than was expected. Muqtada al-Sada has now demanded concessions in return for his ceasefire call. These include the government granting a general amnesty for his followers, releasing all his imprisoned members who have not been convicted of crimes and bringing back who he calls “the displaced people who have fled their homes as a result of military operations.”

The Iraqi Army started their assault on Basra on Tuesday. An eye witness account by former Iraqi captain Qais Mizher shows that the Mahdis had gained effective control of the city. He said the Iraqi Army assault initially appeared to have backfired as many neighbourhoods were deserted or overrun by the Mahdi Army despite military curfews. He saw scattered Iraqi Army and police checkpoints, but no place seemed to be truly under government control. In addition, travelling around the Shiite south of Iraq has been problematic since the Basra violence erupted.

While the Iraqi are mired in Basra, they were backed up by US fighter planes and helicopter gunships who struck the city and also the Baghdad’s Sadr City with bombs and missiles. The Sadr city slum is home to two million people and is considered Mahdi Army heartland. US helicopters fired missiles at Sadr while planes bombed Basra. Fighting has raged across much of the country with battles reported in Kut, Hilla, Amara, Kirkuk, and Baquba. Both Baghdad and Basra have been placed under a 24-hour curfew for the last three days.

The current violence has a political aim. It intends to severely weaken the Sadrists to the benefit of their political rivals, al-Maliki’s Dawa party and its principal government ally, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI). The ISCI is led by Shia cleric Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, whose own militia, the Badr Brigade, is well represented in the government’s security forces. The Badr Brigade has strong links to the Iranian Government and its secret Quds Force which equips foreign Islamic revolutionary movements.

Some have questioned Prime Minister Nurik al-Maliki’s timing of the Basra assault. Kevin Drum has speculated that his actions got the green light from the Bush regime because of their liking of quick and decisive action, regardless of the consequences. He says Maliki may have calculated this would be a speedy mopping-up operation that would provide General Petraeus with good news ahead of his congressional testimony for his proposal on continued troop deployments. Alternatively it may be a chance to explain the bad news elsewhere with rising violence throughout Iraq at the moment. Lastly, the Basra operation offers another excuse not to withdraw troops.

While the Iraqi army are embarrassed on the streets of Basra, the well-trained 4,000 British army troops remain idly ensconced at Basra airport. They formally returned control of the city to the Iraqis in December but much of Basra has remained under the control of a combination of Iranian-backed militias and criminal gangs. The British retreat from Basra masterminded by Gordon Brown on his visit there in September last year is now looking short-sighted as the army sit helplessly by watching the city disintegrate into anarchic violence.

Britain backs out of Basra

Britain is about to remove its last 500 troops from Basra city in Southern Iraq. The Iraqis expect to make an announcement about British withdrawal in the next few days. After the troops based in Basra Palace depart, Britain will only have 5,000 troops left in the country stationed at Basra airport. Gordon Brown will then make a decision on total withdrawal following a forthcoming report by US General David Petraeus.

American forces are deeply unhappy about the British withdrawal. Retired General Jack Keane, one of the architects of the American troop surge, said the policy was helping to turn Basra into a city of "gangland warfare". Keane said the situation had deteriorated to the point where military commanders had considered using US forces to reinforce the rapidly diminishing British presence. He said the insurgents “know British numbers are going down and see the character of operations is changing.”

The British Ministry of Defence (MOD) claimed their plans are not inconsistent with those of the US. However they admitted there are security problems in Basra. A MOD spokesman claimed that the Iraqi government’s ability to face the challenges is growing and it is appropriate that they take on more responsibility. “We remain united in our strategy of handing over provinces to Iraqi control as and when conditions allow,” he said. “The situation in Baghdad is very different to that in Basra and, as such, different responses are required.”

Britain initially sent 45,000 troops to support the war in Iraq but that number is now down to just 5,500. As of 20 August 2007, Britain had suffered 168 military fatalities since the war started. The highest death toll occurred in the invasion year 2003 when 53 soldiers died. But the death toll has been rising every year since 2004. Already 41 people have died so far this year and 2007 is threatening to overtaken 2003 as the most deadly year yet for British troops.

The situation represents a significant reverse in fortune for the British in Basra. In the days after Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003, British forces could walk around Basra safely wearing berets rather than helmets. The security situation was secure enough for Tony Blair to hold a press conference in the palace. Now military commanders are feeling frustrated by the time taken to train an effective Iraqi army and by the problems forming a police force, many of whom have links with Shia militia. Now US Gen Keane claims the city has descended into gangland warfare.

Basra is Iraq’s largest port and second largest city with a population of 1.7 million. Located on the Shatt-al-arab waterway, it is 55km north of the Persian Gulf and almost 550km south of Baghdad. Basra’s economy is based on refining and exporting of oil and chemicals, and the city is also the centre of an agricultural area that produces wool, grain and dates. The majority population are Shi’ites.

The city was founded in 637 after the battle of Qadisyah when 10,000 Arab Muslims reinforced with 6,000 Syrian warriors defeated an army of 80,000 Persians. Their leader Rustam was killed, and the sacred standard of Persia was captured. The Arabs also lost a third of their men but obtained spoils and the fertile Sawad of Iraq. In celebration the Arab leader Umar al-Khattab (the successor to Mohammed) had a city called Basra founded where the Euphrates and Tigris flow into the Persian Gulf.

The city was destroyed by Mongol hordes in the 14th century. In Ottoman times Iraq was divided in to three provinces of Mosul, Baghdad and Basra. In the First World War the British built a modern harbour in the city after it sent a convoy from Bombay to protect the oil refineries tanks and pipeline at Abadan. They defeated the Turks in Battle of Basra in November 1914. The city became newly independent Iraq’s second city in 1932 and remained an import port for the Allies in the Second World War.

Despite the uncertainty of the latest war, Basra remains a boomtown. The boom is driven by a massive reduction in taxes has allowed the consumer market to blossom. The petty corruption and 100 per cent import duties of Ba'athist days are gone and trade is coming in freely from United Arab Emirates and Kuwait via Umm Qasr port. High tech products are selling particularly well. In Saddam’s era it was a crime to possess a satellite dish. Now dishes and TVs are popular in a country with few television channels, no cable, and limited nightlife. Staying home to watch movies is preferable to travelling around a dark city with sporadic gunfire. Political analyst Robert Wilson, hopes for Basra's continued development. "Basra may go from a backwater of Iraq, second to Baghdad, as it has been for the last forty years, to its natural position as the largest city in the Gulf,” he said.