Tension Grows Between British, Iraqis

Governor's Threat of Noncooperation Adds to Mounting Unrest in Southern Province

British troops secured the scene of a bomb attack on a patrol Tuesday in Basra, where relations between British troops and a police force dominated by Shiite militias have deteriorated. (By Nabil Al-jurani -- Associated Press)

BAGHDAD, Jan. 27 -- The governor of Basra said Friday that he would stop cooperating with British forces on security and other issues in the southern province unless they released five Iraqi policemen currently in British custody.

The standoff comes at a time of mounting unrest in what was once one of Iraq's most tranquil regions. Friday morning in the city of Basra, the provincial capital, an improvised bomb exploded in a market, killing a young girl and injuring four people.

A steadily deteriorating relationship between British troops and a police force dominated by Shiite Muslim militia groups has led to an increase in violence in recent months, including occasional clashes between the Iraqi and British forces jointly responsible for the province's security. British troops this week detained at least 14 policemen in a series of raids in the Shiite-majority city, provoking hundreds of residents to take to the streets in protest. Nine detainees were later released.

"The local government of Basra is going to use all the available means to release the detainees," Mohammed Wall, the provincial governor, said in a telephone interview, adding that a large rally was planned for Sunday near the city's British consulate. "The British are trying to cover their mistakes here by accusing our police for more instability in the town."

The British military, which in September sent armored vehicles crashing through the wall of a local detention facility in an attempt to free two service members held by police, defended their recent raids in an "open letter to the people of Basra" from Gen. John Cooper, commander of British forces in the area.

The operations were "conducted for the benefit of the population of Basra Province," the letter said, according to excerpts provided by the British in a news release. "Some people wish to drive a wedge between the Basra people and the [multinational military forces], but this must not be allowed to happen. It is in all our interests to work together to create a safe and secure environment in which the province and its people can prosper."

A spokesman for the British military in Basra, Maj. Peter Cripps, said in the statement that the individuals who were detained were "believed to be some of the most dangerous and corrupt people in Basra" and were "suspected of acting against the Iraqi people, against the Iraqi Security Forces and against Multi-National Forces."

Many police officers in Basra and across southern Iraq support feared militias such as the Mahdi Army, loyal to Moqtada Sadr, a prominent Shiite cleric, and the Badr Organization, which is linked to Iraq's dominant Shiite party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. Militias have been linked to scores of recent kidnappings and killings of local people and the slaying of two journalists working for American news organizations.

Cripps said British troops were acting in accordance with the wishes of Iraq's Interior Ministry, which has called for rogue elements of the police force to be reined in.

Interior Ministry commandos conducted raids Friday in three neighborhoods in southern Baghdad, rounding up more than 60 suspected insurgents and waging sporadic firefights in the streets, according to Gen. Mohammed Hasan Tamimi, a police spokesman. Ten of those detained were foreigners, Tamimi said.

Backed by U.S. troops, the commandos entered the Sadiya, Jihad and Ameen districts just after 3 a.m. Wire services reported that at least three fighters were killed by policemen in the clashes.

Meanwhile, in the northwestern city of Tall Afar, two Iraqi soldiers were killed and four were wounded when a roadside bomb targeted their patrol, the U.S. military said in a statement. A second bomb, which claimed no casualties, exploded as the soldiers were being evacuated. While soldiers searched the area, a third explosion killed one civilian and wounded another.

Also Friday, a video aired on the Arab satellite television network al-Jazeera showed two German hostages abducted Tuesday near the northern city of Baiji. The men were bound and seated before gunmen brandishing rifles and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. The captives appeared to be speaking, though their voices were inaudible. The network reported that the men had asked the German government to help secure their release.

There was no public response Friday from the kidnappers of Jill Carroll, an American journalist, a day after the U.S. military released five female detainees among hundreds of prisoners.

Carroll's captors, who call themselves the Vengeance Brigade, had said they would kill her if all female detainees in Iraq were not released. The military is still holding at least four female detainees and said Thursday's releases were unrelated to the kidnappers' demands.

Special correspondents Omar Fekeiki and Bassam Sebti in Baghdad and Dlovan Brwari in Mosul contributed to this report.