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news.bbc.co.uk...
UK forces in Basra have stormed the headquarters of an Iraqi police unit, fearing 178 prisoners would be killed, a military spokesman said.
The spokesman said it was a continuation of an operation begun earlier this month against the serious crimes unit at Jamiat police station.
news.yahoo.com...
British and Iraqi forces seized one of the main police stations in
Iraq's southern city of Basra on Monday because they said the Major Crimes Unit had become a "criminal enterprise."
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British military spokesman Captain Tane Dunlop said the troops carried out medical assessments of detainees at the building before transferring them to another police station.
"We (then) used explosives to put the building beyond use so it can no longer be used by the criminal enterprise," he said.
Calling the police station a center of "criminal enterprise" and a symbol of oppression for the city's residents, the military said the building was demolished with explosives after a pre-dawn assault by around 1,000 troops backed by tanks.
Many of its 127 prisoners, all suspected criminals, were found crowded into a small cell, living in "appalling conditions," the military said. A number had crushed feet or hands and gunshot wounds to the knee, apparent signs of torture.
news.yahoo.com...
Originally posted by WyrdeOne
So, is the destruction of the Iraqi Police Headquarters meant to be punitive in this case, or preventative?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the crooked cops can just set up shop in another location.
What about my earlier example. If the building was a water treatment plant or something, would we just blow it to Hell and clap ourselves on the back, and talk about how we had denied insurgents a base of operations?
www.nytimes.com...
The building had symbolic importance because before the war it had been used by Saddam Hussein’s police and many of those taken there were never heard from again.
Basra City Council has withdrawn co-operation from UK forces in southern Iraq after the police's serious crimes unit was disbanded by troops. More than 1,000 troops blew up a police station run by the unit, which has been blamed for robberies and death squads.
Mohammed al Abadi, head of the city's council, had said the raid was illegal and threatened to stop co-operation.
He said local officials had not been informed of the operation and that it violated earlier agreements to move the prisoners without military action.
And Basra police commander Brigadier General Ali Ibrahim said: "This storming operation is illegal and violates human rights.
"We think that what the operation sought to achieve is very simple and could have been settled by Iraqi troops."
A spokesman conceded some elements of the council were unhappy but said the UK and the Iraqi government would explain the reasons for them.
In September 2005, two SAS soldiers were rescued from Jamiat after being accused of shooting dead a local policeman and wounding another.
Originally posted by rich23
Let's forget that they had bomb-making equipment in the back of their car and were disguised as locals...
Originally posted by devilwasp
But after all its about who you believe and who you trust....
The Serious Crimes Unit was regarded as one of the most corrupt elements of the British-mentored and trained constabulary in Iraq’s second city.
In Saddam Hussein’s time, local security forces dragged hundreds of people to the al-Jameat compound in the middle of the night. They were never heard of again. It became known as the “station of death”.
The two-storey building had been reopened by the British as a police station, part of the coalition’s optimistic attempts to restore order after Saddam’s overthrow.
Before long it was nicknamed “Gestapo HQ” by British officers. The horrors taking place behind its thick white walls were feared to compare with the sadistic excesses of the toppled dictatorship.
Britain ordered undercover troops to mount surveillance. The intelligence-gathering operation went wrong when two officers became involved in a shootout with plainclothes Iraqi police. The pair were arrested and taken to al-Jameat in September 2005. Under interrogation they were punched and kicked. This time the British forces would stand for no nonsense; they bulldozed the side of the police station. The men, who had been moved to a different location, were freed.
Originally posted by rich23
The easiest way to mould a story for propaganda purposes is to omit the details that give the game away. Thus, the British press concentrated on the rescue of the soldiers from jail and the "reason" they ended up there in the first place. They omit the fact that the soldiers were trying to look like locals and the contents of the car's boot, pertinent information in my book.
[edit on 27-12-2006 by rich23]