[A-List] Iraq: the blowback begins

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

British forces warned of attack threat by mujahideen
IAN BRUCE
The Herald, 3 April 2003

BRITISH forces in southern Iraq have been warned that they could face attack
from veteran Sudanese mujahideen who fought for the Taliban cause in
Afghanistan and now see the war against Iraq as an assault on Islam.

The alert follows rumours that Lebanese Hizbollah fighters have been
training Iraqi militias in ambush techniques.

Thousands of Sudanese and other North African volunteers flocked to
Afghanistan during the nine-year uprising in the 1980s which forced the
Soviet army of occupation to withdraw in 1989.

Many of the Sudanese stayed on to help the now-deposed Taliban regime impose
its own brand of hard-line fundamentalism on the country. Those coming to
Iraq are not believed to be members of al Qaeda.

The alert went out after two days without an ambush on patrols of supply
convoys operating south of Basra.

Captain Rob Sandford, of the Black Watch, said: "The threat in our area
remains asymmetric, from irregulars and suicide bombers rather than
conscripts or regular troops.

"The suicide threat is of particular concern to British commanders.

"Our style is to mingle with the locals to create an air of stability and
get to know the people and earn their trust. Experience in the Balkans and
elsewhere proves that it is an effective tactic in any hearts- and-minds
campaign, but it does leave us vulnerable on the streets. The only answer is
constant vigilance."

One of the problems confronting the UK's 1st Armoured Division is that it
faces three simultaneous areas and quite different and contradictory roles
in its sector.

In the north around Basra, fighting is still under way, chipping away at the
city's defences with raids and bombardments to weaken enemy morale.

South of there, in al Zubayr, there are overlapping counter-insurgency and
peace-keeping missions, complicated by the need to supply humanitarian aid
to the local population.

Captain Sandford said: "It's difficult for troops who have been in combat to
become policemen and the equivalent of the armed wing of Oxfam overnight,
especially if they have lost friends or been through traumatic experiences
in battle.

"The Jocks are good at it. They are superb fighting soldiers but they are
also soft-hearted. Patrols armed to the teeth are still giving sweets from
their own rations to local kids.

"Many of these guys have children of their own. They look around at the
poverty here and they can't be hard on people who have basically got nothing
themselves."

Overnight, a Black Watch raiding party arrested three senior figures thought
to be instrumental in co-ordinating anti-British activity in the area and US
strike aircraft dropped 16 satellite-guided bombs on a compound holding up
to 200 militia fighters in Basra.

Most are thought to have been killed. Several civilians also died but
intelligence from refugees fleeing the city indicated the population was
prepared to accept the risk of such collateral damage if it hastened the
fall of the Baghdad regime.

Challengers from the Queens Dragoon Guards also knocked out six Iraqi tanks
in a night-time dual across the Shatt-al-Arab waterway which links Basra to
the Persian Gulf. British engineers have meanwhile helped restore piped
water to most of al Zubayr, a key first step in bringing normality back to
the town.