Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Sono li' per evitare la guerra civile...

Ma quando se ne vanno (cioe... vengono cacciati a pedate dalla
resistenza)....
http://uk.reuters.com/article/email/idUKYAT72246420071001
Iraqis say Basra quieter after British troop pullout
Mon Oct 1, 2007 3:12pm BST
By Aref Mohammed
BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Residents of Iraq's southern city of Basra
have begun strolling riverfront streets again after four years of
fear, their city much quieter since British troops withdrew from the
grand Saddam Hussein-era Basra Palace.
Political assassinations and sectarian violence continue, some city
officials say, but on a much smaller scale than at any time since
British troops moved into the city after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
Mortar rounds, rockets and small arms fire crashed almost daily into
the palace, making life hazardous for British and Iraqis alike in
Iraq's second-largest city. To many Basrans the withdrawal of the
British a month ago removed a proven target.
"The situation these days is better. We were living in hell ... the
area is calm since their withdrawal," said housewife Khairiya Salman,
who lives near the palace.
Civil servant Wisam Abdul Sada agreed. "We do not hear the sounds of
explosions which were shaking our houses and terrifying our women and
children," he told Reuters.
Basra, in Iraq's Shi'ite south, has enormous strategic importance as
the hub for the country's vital oil exports that account for 90
percent of its revenue and a centre of imports and exports throughout
the Gulf.
The volatile city has witnessed its share of violence in a sectarian
conflict and insurgency that has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis
since the 2003 invasion to topple Saddam.
While the British were frequent targets -- 41 soldiers were killed
this year, the most since 2003 -- Basra has also been the centre of a
turf war between rival Shi'ite groups.
That fighting was mainly between the Mehdi Army militia loyal to fiery
anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, the Supreme Iraqi Islamic
Council whose armed Badr wing controls police in much of the south,
and the smaller Fadhila party.
The three groups have been battling for political supremacy. The
violence, which has become part of the fabric of Basra life, has not
completely abated since about 500 British soldiers withdrew from the
palace in the city centre to the vast airbase on its outskirts in
early September.
Last week, a suicide car bomber killed three people and wounded 20 in
an attack on a police station. Suicide car bombs are the hallmark of
Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and are rare in Basra, where most fighting is
between rival Shi'ites.
Gunmen also killed a religious aide to revered Shi'ite cleric Grand
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani a week earlier.
ASSASSINATIONS
Even before those attacks some disagreed over whether the city was now
safer than anywhere else in the volatile south. Two SIIC governors
were assassinated in the southern provinces of Muthanna and Diwaniya
in August.
Basra city councillor Munadhil al-Mayahi said security had
deteriorated over the past three months.
"Political assassinations have increased, armed robberies have
increased, kidnappings have increased," he said.
"But this has nothing to do with the British withdrawal. All that
changed after the British troops left was that bombardment of the
palace stopped."
Others described their departure from the palace as "a wish come
true".
"Their presence was annoying and provocative most of the time," said
Mehdi Obaid, a 39-year-old civil servant.
The pullout will lead to a planned reduction in British forces to
about 5,000. Britain has already handed over security command for
three other southern provinces to Iraqi forces.
A recent quarterly Pentagon report said security in southern Iraq had
taken a "notable turn for the worse" in August, adding that there
could be an increase in intra-Shi'ite fighting, once centred in Basra,
across the south.
It had been feared the British withdrawal would trigger an upsurge in
violence in Basra. Merchant Faris Mohammed Ali described the British
soldiers as a "scarecrow".
"Frankly I didn't want the British troops to withdraw, not because I
liked them but because I am afraid of the factions and their armed
groups, they are in a constant struggle which may burn the city one
day," he said.
But for now Basra seems quieter and safer to some families who have
started to come out at night to stroll along the banks of the Shatt al-
Arab river, something that would have been unthinkable not long ago.
"A year or six months ago, we were afraid to go out to this place,"
Baidaa Razaq told Reuters as she walked with her son.
"The occupiers used to come often to this place," she said referring
to the British troops who had been stationed in Basra city since the
2003 U.S.-led invasion.

 who lives near the palace.
Una persona coerente :)
"We are living in hell" e "the area is calm" :)
*LOL*
-Stefano

 "We are living in hell" e "the area is calm" :)
ehm...we WERE living in hell....facocero...

 ehm...we WERE living in hell....
Mio errore di lettura.
-Stefano


In ogni caso
http://www.alsumaria.tv/en/Iraq-News/1-8121-Iraq-arrests-20-officers-of-military-academy.html
le notizie la smentiscono.
-Stefano