Remember When…? British Tanks Storm Basra Jail to Free Undercover Soldiers
- The Guardian, Tuesday 20 September 2005
CLIFF NOTES: British SAS soldiers were caught red-handed by local Iraqis, in full dress-up like Iraqis, shooting up a public place and inciting EXTREME and RUTHLESS violence. By the end of the day, they were broken out by presumably British/NATO forces. Nope, nothing to see her folks….
Iraqi policemen walk through debris at the central jail in Basra. Photograph: Nabil al-Jurani/AP
British troops used tanks last night to break down the walls of a prison in the southern Iraqi city of Basra and free two undercover British soldiers who were seized earlier in the day by local police.An official from the Iraqi interior ministry said half a dozen tanks had broken down the walls of the jail and troops had then stormed it to free the two British soldiers. The governor of Basra last night condemned the “barbaric aggression” of British forces in storming the jail.Aquil Jabbar, an Iraqi television cameraman who lives across the street from the jail, said dozens of Iraqi prisoners also fled in the confusion.