British leave, battle erupts over Basra

Turmoil like that in the southern port city could erupt elsewhere in Iraq as outside forces depart, say analysts.

from the March 23, 2007 edition

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BAGHDAD - Just two days after British troops pulled out of downtown Basra, Iraq's second-largest city and center of the country's oil-rich south, fighting erupted between rival Shiite groups in street battles Thursday.

An eyewitness reported that masked gunmen swept through the center of the city carrying AK-47s and rocket launchers as members of Moqtada al Sadr's Mahdi Army and the Fadhila Party, which controls the province, apparently fought over a government building just vacated by British troops.

The turmoil in the capital of the southern province, home to a key port and most of the country's oil wealth, signals the beginning of the kind of battles that could erupt in Iraq as outside forces depart, say analysts. "There will be a power vacuum in Basra," says Martin Navias, an analyst at the Centre for Defence Studies at King's College in London. "As the British begin to extricate themselves from Basra, there will be fighting among these groups."

Fadhila officials said that "neighboring" countries, in a veiled reference to Iran, were backing certain factions in Basra including an individual they named who has known links to Mr. Sadr. "Iranian influence in southern Iraq is very strong and there are loads of Iranian personnel running around Basra, but which faction they are coming down for is unclear," says Mr. Navias.

"The British adopted a policy of live and let live. They never confronted the Shiite militias unless they were pushed in certain situations .... This allowed the different factions to assume power in the governing council, police and other institutions."

The Iraqi eyewitness to the fighting, who identified himself as Abu Ali, a Shiite contacted by phone in Basra, says, "It was unreal, some [of the fighters] looked like they were 12 years old." He didn't give his real name for fear the Mahdi Army will target him. "They were shouting: Moqtada, Moqtada."

He escaped the fighting on a side street and heard heavy gunfire and explosions. Shopkeepers began to close and run away too. "It was horrible. I barely escaped alive," he says.

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