[link|http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4262336.stm|Here]:

Two British soldiers whose imprisonment prompted UK troops to storm a Basra police station were later rescued from militia, the Ministry of Defence says.

Brigadier John Lorimer said it was of "deep concern" the men detained by police ended up held by Shia militia.

Basra governor Mohammed al-Waili said the men - possibly working undercover - were arrested for allegedly shooting dead a policeman and wounding another.

The arrests sparked unrest in which Army vehicles were attacked.

In a statement, Brig Lorimer said that under Iraqi law the soldiers should have been handed over to coalition authorities, but this failed to happen despite repeated requests.

"I had good reason to believe that the lives of the soldiers were at risk and troops were sent to the area of Basra near the police station to help ensure their safety by providing a cordon," Brig Lorimer said.

Recall that Basra has seen [link|http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/20/international/middleeast/20basra.html|increasing violence] recently:

The journalist, Fakher Haider, 38, was found with his hands bound and a bag over his head in a deserted area on the outskirts of Basra, in southern Iraq, hours after being taken from his house in that city. A relative who viewed his body in the city morgue said he had at least one bullet hole in his head and bruises on his back as if he had been beaten.

Mr. Haider had worked for The Times since April 2003 and had recently reported on the growing friction and violence among Basra's rival Shiite militias, which are widely believed to have infiltrated the police.

[...]

Mr. Haider is the second journalist to be killed in Basra in the past two months. In August, Steven Vincent, an American freelance reporter who was writing a book about the city, was abducted along with his Iraqi interpreter, and he was later found dead. The interpreter remains hospitalized.

Days earlier, Mr. Vincent had written an Op-Ed article for The Times in which he criticized the British security forces in the city for failing to act against the Shiite militias' growing power within the local police force.

Basra has grown increasingly violent, with a complex web of sectarian agendas playing itself out almost daily on the streets. Insurgents continue to attack Shiite civilians and military patrols, while Shiite militias fight among themselves and, recently, with British troops as well.

On Sunday, Mr. Haider filed reports about angry demonstrations that had broken out after the arrest by British forces of two high-ranking members of the Mahdi Army, the militia loyal to the renegade Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr.

Shortly after midnight, two cars, one of them an unmarked sedan, one a police car, were driven up to Mr. Haider's apartment building, according to witnesses who said they could not be identified without jeopardizing their lives.

It seems clear that the press is carefully monitored by people in Basra and that many of those with violent tendencies do not like being criticized. :-(

More on the British arrest of Sadr's lieutenants on Sunday the 13th is [link|http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/18/AR2005091800322_pf.html|here].

There are a lot of things going on in Basra, including rumors of more al Qaeda activity. I don't think the British troops rescued their men without thinking long and hard about the ramifications.

Cheers,
Scott.