British forces gave civilian leaders in the southern Iraq town of Majar al-Kabir 48 hours to hand over gunmen who killed six British military police officers. British military officials met seven members of the city's administrative council in the nearby town of Amarah, seeking the killers' surrender, said Qassem Nimeh, an official in the mayor's office in Majar al-Kabir. There were contradictory versions of what sparked the shooting. Local police said today that residents of the small township, furious over the deaths of civilians during a demonstration, had shot and killed the military policemen.
| Just Dire Revenge™. Nothing out of the ordinary... |
Armed Iraqis killed two of the British soldiers at the scene of the demonstration — in front of the mayor's office — and then stormed a police station and killed four other British soldiers after a two–hour gunbattle, a pair of Iraqi policemen said.
The day's violence began when British soldiers fired rubber bullets — and then live ammunition — at rioters demonstrators in Majar al–Kabir who were protesting against the presence of British forces in the city, said Abu Zahraa, a 30–year–old local vendor. He said the British had formally agreed a day earlier to let local police patrol the city. Accounts differed on where the four Iraqi civilians were killed. Some said British soldiers killed all four during the demonstration; another account said two unarmed protesters were killed during the demonstration and two other civilians were killed in the gun battle at the police station.
| I'd suspect they were all killed in the gun battle... |
After the deaths at the scene of the demonstration, angry townspeople fetched weapons from their homes, converged on the police station and attacked British soldiers, said Abbas Faddhel, an Iraqi policeman in the town. One British soldier was shot and killed at the station's doorway; the other three died after Iraqi gunmen stormed the station and cornered them in a single room, said Salam Mohammed, aged 30, member of a municipal security force. A British military spokesman, Captain Adam Marchant–Wincott, said he could not confirm the Iraqi witness accounts. He said, however, that it was possible that there had been an agreement between British forces and local police allowing the locals to take over security for the city. Capt. Marchant–Wincott said he could not say whether the British forces had fired at demonstrators but added that they would do so only if their lives were threatened.
Mr Faddhel said that there were about two dozen Iraqi policemen at the station who fled through a window during the gunbattle. Two were wounded. He said the Iraqi police had asked the British troops to leave with them but the British insisted on staying.
| Make a desolation and call it peace. That way it won't happen again. Don't do it, and it will... |
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