pleas for British return to Basra

pleas for a British return to Basra

Deborah Haynes in Baghdad and Richard Beeston in London

Read Deborah Haynes’s Inside Iraq blog

British troops in Basra are being urged to return to the front line and help their Iraqi counterparts in the battle against insurgents after two bombs in as many days left eight people dead and many more wounded.

Britain’s forces, however, insisted that the explosions were isolated incidents and the overall situation in Basra had become much calmer since they withdrew from their last stronghold inside the oil-rich city at the start of the month.

The latest bombing took place on Wednesday evening near the main gate of a Sunni mosque in the town of Abu al-Khaseeb, about 12 miles (20km) south of Basra, killing three Shia guards and two Sunni worshippers, police said. Five other prayer-goers were injured.

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The attack came one day after a suicide car bomb exploded outside the police headquarters in Basra, leaving three police trainees dead and 17 wounded. Most policemen in the city are Shia Arabs.

Colonel Abdul Kareem el-Zaydee, the main police spokesman in Basra, said he feared an upsurge of al-Qaeda attacks. “Perhaps al-Qaeda members have now come to Basra,” Colonel Zaydee told The Times.