Did Britain make a secret pact with Mahdy Army?

Amina Anderson
Al Jazeera
Thursday, Aug 7, 2008

The British army made a secret deal with the Mahdy Army which kept UK forces out of the Basra clashes last March, leaving Iraqi forces to fight alone, The Times newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The Iraqi army launched a major offensive in the southern city of Basra against the Shia Mahdy Army in March this year. British army officials had described the operation as “Iraqi planned, led and executed.” But from the beginning, it was clear that things have gone out of the Iraqis’ control, and many wondered why the British were so slow to support Iraqi troops.

According to an article on the BBC, the resistance by Mahdy Army fighters was much stronger than had been anticipated. Yet British forces were only deployed from Basra’s airport into the city after six days of fighting.

The Times says the British decision to keep their soldiers out of action was dictated by a secret pact with the Mahdy Army. The newspaper described the deal as a pre-arranged “accommodation,” explaining that under its terms, no British soldier could enter Basra without the permission of Defense Secretary Des Browne.

The Defense Ministry rejected the report, claiming that the only reason British involvement was limited during the Basra offensive was to ensure the operation was perceived by residents as Iraqi-led.

But closer examination of the British relationship with the Mahdi Army in Basra shows that such an agreement could have been possible.

Military intelligence sources told the BBC that the British have been talking to the Mahdy Army for several years.

Ali al-Salman, a senior commander of the Mehdi Army in Basra, told the BBC that he attended three meetings with a "British army officer and a British 'civilian' between 8 February and 10 February 2007".

He added that a regional colonel from the Iraqi Army and another member of the Mahdy Army also attended the meeting.

Under the terms of the deal, 60 Shia detainees were released, the British army agreed to stop patrolling in Basra and the Mahdy Army agreed not to attack the British headquarters in the city, al-Salman said.

He also said that the British "didn't keep their part of the bargain as [in April 2008] they participated in military operations in Basra".

A separate report earlier this week in Britain's Independent also suggested that a secret deal existed between the Mahdy Army and the British military.

Colonel Richard Iron told the Independent that the deal involved the release of 120 prisoners, but left the city at the mercy of criminal gangs.

"As 90 percent of the attacks were against us, we thought if we moved out, we would remove the source of the problem," Iron told the Independent. "But actually the Jaish al-Mahdi (the Mahdi army) had been fighting us because we were the only obstacle to their total control."

Some Iraqi generals even believe that the British allowed the militias free reign in southern Iraq.
"What happened in Basra, Nasiriyah, Amarah and other areas falls on the shoulders of the British forces," Iraqi Brigadier General Baha Hussein Abed, the deputy commander of the Iraqi army's 1st Division which fought alongside U.S. Marines in Basra during the Basra offensive, said in an interview with The Associated Press in early June.

"Basra is considered the economic capital of Iraq, but the British let the militias do what they wanted

Political reluctance ?

British army officials insist there was no deal made with the Mahdy Army. Tom Holloway, a British military spokesman in Basra, said “British forces in Basra were postured for training.”
"They were on the streets by 1 April when they had turned the training mission into a support mission."

But this scenario is unbelievable.

The British military turned over provincial control of Basra to the Iraqi government in late, but more than 4,000 British soldiers remained on standby at their airport base outside the city. This means that at least 1,800 would have been ready to fight.

Observers wonder whether that deal was due to political reluctance in Whitehall for British troops to be involved in an Iraqi offensive just months after the British had handed over security control of the province.

Again the answer to that is unclear.

U.S. involvement

The Americans also think that the British response during the Basra clashes was due to an “accommodation” with the Mahdy Army.

Unlike the British, the U.S. army sent 1,000 marines from the Anbar province to Basra 48 hours after the operation began. U.S. jets also carried out several air strikes in the city.

The consequences of the American involvement are now being seen in Basra.

"There are a lot of discrete American units operating in the city", said a military intelligence source.

"They are considering sending as many as 15,000 troops down there".

It’s almost impossible to know whether the British really made a secret pact with the Mahdy Army.

A British military intelligence source said agreements like these would be kept top-secret.
"If the delay in fighting in March/April 2008 was due to a deal the only people who would have known would have been the defence minister, the defence chief, a very senior commander in the field and some planners," he said.

"The command has to maintain morale. It can't be seen to do a deal with people who have killed soldier's mates. That would make the government as popular as a bag of puke.”