There’s a shocking finding in today’s Times, and one that could permanently undermine relations between Britain and Iraq. The reason British troops weren’t involved in the early stages of the recent Basra offensive? It wasn’t because Iraqi forces could “cope on their own”. Instead, it was down to a deliberate snub on the part of Iraqi officials:
“The Times has learnt … that when Britain’s most senior officer in Basra, Brigadier Julian Free, commander of 4 Mechanised Brigade, flew into the city to find out what was going on, Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, who was orchestrating the attacks on militia strongholds, declined to see him.
Brigadier Free flew to Basra city with Lieutenant-General Lloyd Austin, the commander of American and coalition forces in Iraq, on March 27, two days after the operation began.
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