British Troops Reduce Presence in Basra

The VERY Bizarre Case of Two British Special Forces Soldiers Arrested Undercover with Explosives by Iraqi Police and Freed from Iraqi Police by, You Guessed It, the British Army. Utter Descent Into Chaos. And What Were Those Two Brits Doing Anyway Dressed as Arabs, Packed with Explosives, and Perhaps Shooting at the Iraqi Police?--Buzzflash

By THOMAS WAGNER, Associated Press Writer 48 minutes ago

British troops in the tense southern city of Basra greatly reduced their presence in the streets Thursday, apparently responding to a provincial governor's call to sever cooperation until London apologized for storming a police station to free two of its soldiers.

For the second day, no British forces were seen accompanying Iraqi police on patrols of Basra, as they routinely had in the past.

Elsewhere, a roadside bomb hit a U.S. convoy in southern Baghdad, killing one soldier and wounding six others; a car bomb wounded another American soldier outside the capital; and suspected insurgents gunned down at least eight Iraqis in four separate attacks Thursday, officials said.

In an interview with Associated Press Television News in Baghdad on Thursday, Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie called Monday's attack by British forces on a Basra police station "a flagrant violation of Iraqi sovereignty."