Basra.
British troops clashed with stone-throwing Iraqi rioters yesterday as anger over fuel and power shortages erupted onto the streets of Basra in a blaze of burning Kuwaiti vehicles and smoking barricades of tyres. In some of the most widespread violence seen in the Shi'ite Muslim south since Saddam Hussein fell four months ago, local people directed their anger at Kuwaitis they accuse of conniving at smuggling out cheap Iraqi oil and at the British, who they say have failed to restore services to pre-war standards.
Witnesses saw troops fire in the air and loose off baton rounds at a gas station where queues formed a flashpoint for the trouble. As temperatures soar above 50oC, fridges and air conditioners have stuttered to a halt in Basra. Household generators are running low on diesel. It was a reminder US-led forces face problems not only among the Sunni Muslim minority in Saddam's heartlands north and west of Baghdad, where American troops are taking a daily toll of casualties they blame on diehard Saddam loyalists.
In Baghdad, FBI investigators visited the damaged Jordanian embassy, where a truck bomb killed 17 people on Thursday. Iraq's US administrator Paul Bremer said he was keeping an open mind on the culprits, describing the al Qaeda-linked group Ansar al Islam as only one of a number of potential suspects. "I frankly have not reached a conclusion yet," he said.
Another hitherto unknown group called for guerrilla attacks on the occupiers, saying in a videotape shown on a pan-Arab television channel that this was the only way to free Iraq. Five masked men on the tape, aired on Dubai-based Al Arabiya television, said they were Iraqis from the White Flags, Muslim Youth and Army of Mohammad organisations. "We warn countries of the world, and for the last time, not to send troops into Iraq," their speaker added.
US President George W. Bush, in a domestic radio address 100 days after he declared major combat operations over in Iraq, promised a "long-term undertaking" to bring democracy and economic prosperity to Iraq and across the Middle East. "One hundred days is not enough time to undo the terrible legacy of Saddam Hussein," he said. "There is difficult and dangerous work ahead that requires time and patience."
British military spokesmen in Basra said troops rescued the drivers of a Kuwaiti tanker set ablaze at the petrol station. Several soldiers were hurt by stones, they said. Witnesses said at least two Iraqis were hurt by rubber bullets. Violence spread to other fuel outlets and crowds threw stones at soldiers guarding the main British headquarters.
Majority Shi'ites, glad to be rid of the dictator who oppressed them, have been less restive than Saddam's Sunni religious kin. But their leaders, some of whom want an Iranian-style Shi'ite republic, are keen for power themselves. One of the most outspoken of them called for calm, however. "We have always called for the occupiers to be removed from the country by peaceful means," Moqtada al-Sadr told Reuters.
The British army's softly-softly policing, honed in Northern Ireland and held up as a contrast to the heavy approach taken by Americans further north, were put to their biggest test since six British military policemen were killed in the Shi'ite village of Majjar in June. Troops donned riot gear and officials met community leaders to try to calm heat-frazzled tempers.
"All the disasters that have come upon us are because of Kuwait and Kuwaitis," said one man, Abu Hassan, as a mob attacked Kuwaiti-registered cars in the streets. "The British have been here four months and things have not improved. Now we have shortages in everything." Clerics took to the streets to reason with the rioters.
The mainly British local authority issued a statement blaming shortages on smugglers, looters and saboteurs and stressing its efforts to combat them and ease the problems. It said British marines seized a tanker overnight that was smuggling Iraqi diesel oil down into the Gulf by sea overnight.
"There has been widespread unrest in Basra today in response to the current critical fuel and power shortage," the Coalition Provisional Authority in Basra said. "Many districts have had minimal power for four days now." It said lack of electricity, partly as a result of sabotage or looting of copper cable from power lines and partly due to breakdowns in ageing generators, had forced the local refinery to cut back on gasoline production for transport.
British-led forces were trying to seal off to oil smugglers the desert truck routes to Kuwait and sealanes down the Shatt al Arab waterway from Basra to the Gulf, the Authority said. There has been ill feeling between Iraqis in the south and their wealthy Kuwaiti neighbours, particularly since Saddam's invasion of the oil-rich Gulf state in 1990.