Members of the famous Black Watch in BasraFive British soldiers were killed in a helicopter crash Saturday in Basra...apparently from an Iranian supplied `stinger' type ground to air missle. A mob cheered as the bodies were found in wreckage, pumping the air with their fists.
Iraqi fire-fighting crews rushed to the scene, accompanied by British troops looking to seal the area off while they recovered their dead and anything important from the helicopter. But they were met by a frenzied mob, which pelted them with stones and even set fire to two British armored cars and a Land Rover with molotov cocktails.
This little riot in what was formerly known as a `quiet' area was the direct handiwork of Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army. Armed militiamen from the Army were found throughout the crowd and fired on British troops, creating a crossfire in which four Iraqis were killed.
Shouts of "We are all soldiers of al-Sayed," a reference to Muqtada al-Sadr, and slogans for the Mahdi army, were screamed out from the crowd.
This attack was designed-obviously on the orders of Iran, who control Sadr and the Iranian equipped Mahdi Army-as a step in increasing the gap between the US and Britain, already widening in much of Blair's Labour Party and the rest of the Left. And it already is having an effect on the battered Blair regime.
Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn said: "This tragedy underlines the fact that the British and American occupation process in Iraq is not only deeply unpopular but is part of the problem and not of the solution. It demonstrates the need to set out a plan to pull British and American forces out and end this illegal occupation."
Liberal Democrat defence spokesman Nick Harvey also said the time had come for a withdrawal plan. He said,"What is needed is a clear exit strategy to establish the basis upon which British troops would be returned home."
Look for more Mahdi Army action against the Brits in Basra.
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