Monday, December 17, 2007

UK has left behind murder and chaos, says Basra police chief

Blunt assessment delivered as British hand over security to Iraqis

Mona Mahmoud, Maggie O’Kane and Ian Black

The Guardian | Monday December 17, 2007

The full scale of the chaos left behind by British forces in Basra was revealed yesterday as the city’s police chief described a province in the grip of well-armed militias strong enough to overpower security forces and brutal enough to behead women considered not sufficiently Islamic.

As British forces finally handed over security in Basra province, marking the end of 4½ years of control in southern Iraq, Major General Jalil Khalaf, the new police commander, said the occupation had left him with a situation close to mayhem. “They left me militia, they left me gangsters, and they left me all the troubles in the world,” he said in an interview for Guardian Films and ITV.

Keep reading . . .

No comments: