news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060217/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_060217165312
Tony Blair rejected the Iranian demand and accused Iran of trying to divert attention from other issues, presumably its nuclear program. A Basra city spokesman said the departure of foreign troops "is not in Iraq's interest now" because of the security situation. "We believe that the presence of British forces in Basra has destabilized security in this city and has had some negative effects in the form of threats against southern Iran recently," Foreign Minister Manushehr Mottaki said during a visit to Beirut, Lebanon. "The Islamic Republic of Iran demands an immediate withdrawal of British forces from Basra," he added. Basra is located about 22 miles west of the Iranian border. Mottaki's call followed recent publicity surrounding last week's release of video images showing British soldiers beating Iraqi youths during a deadly January 2004 riot in Amarah, about 100 miles north of Basra. On Tuesday, protesters marched on the British Consulate in Basra, shouted anti-British slogans and burned a British flag. Mottaki said the British forces had behaved in an "inhuman and immoral manner that constituted a flagrant violation of human rights" against Iraqi youths. During a visit to Germany, Blair said British troops were in Iraq under a UN mandate and with the consent of the Iraqi government and would remain as long as "the Iraqi government wishes us to stay."
United Nations mandate and Iraqi support," Blair said after talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. Relations between British forces and local authorities in Basra have been strained for weeks after British attempts to crack down on Shiite militias, some of which have links to Shiite-dominated Iran and to major Shiite political parties in Iraq. Last month, British soldiers arrested several police officers, accusing them of ties of Shiite militias and criminal gangs. After the Amarah video surfaced, the Basra provincial council, dominated by the hardline Fadhila party, severed ties with British authorities. However, Nadim al-Jabiri, a spokesman for the separate Basra city council, said British forces were necessary at this time to maintain security in the area. "The withdrawal of foreign troops is not in Iraq's interest right now," al-Jabiri told The Associated Press. "Although we don't want them to stay indefinitely, we need them now. Their presence is important until Iraqi troops are strong enough to counter violence and terrorist acts." Despite religious ties between Iran and Iraqi Shiites, suspicion runs deep because of bitterness left over from the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-1988. US and British officials believe anti-coalition groups in Iraq have received explosives and bomb-making technology from Iran. However, officials insist there is no evidence that the Tehran government is directly involved. In Baghdad, police and US troops found a total of six bodies of men, bound and shot in the head, in two separate parts of the capital. Their identities were unknown, but they appeared to be victims of sectarian reprisal killings that have sharpened tensions between Sunnis and Shiites. Sunni Arab politicians claim death squads linked to the Shiite-led Interior Ministry have been kidnapping and killing Sunni civilians for months. The ministry denies the charge but announced an investigation Thursday after US officials reported that 22 Iraqi policemen were arrested last month before they were able to kill a Sunni Arab man north of Baghdad. "You never like to hear about any reports of this nature," White House deputy press secretary Trent Duffy said. "The Iraqi police need to uphold the highest human rights standards that is expected by the international community. The Iraqi training is ongoing and that will continue to be one of the highest priorities." Elsewhere, at least nine people died in scattered violence around the country, including two civilians killed by a roadside bomb in northern Baghdad and three found hanged from a bridge in Ramadi. Insurgents also blew up the main pipeline feeding crude oil from the northern fields of Kirkuk to a refinery in the southern Baghdad suburb of Dora, police Lt. It was unclear how long it would take to repair the pipeline, which provides oil for use in the generation of electricity in Baghdad. Insurgents routinely target Iraq's oil infrastructure as part of a campaign to derail the country's US-backed reconstruction.
Iraqi youths watch a burning oil pipeline near Taji, north of Baghdad, Friday, Feb. Insurgents blew up the main pipeline feeding crude oil from the northern oil fields of Kirkuk to a refinery in the southern Baghdad suburb of Dora and stopping the flow of oil.
The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
|
http://csua.com/feed/