Riots broke out in the southern port of Basra on Saturday after clashes between residents and British troops controlling Iraq's second largest city left at least four civilians wounded. People hurled rocks and burned tyres all over the city's main streets as long-simmering tensions exploded in the blistering summer heat over the pace of the coalition force's reconstruction efforts. The rioting started minutes after witnesses said a grenade was hurled at a British military truck near a gasoline station, where fed-up Iraqis waited in a long line for fuel, angered by the fact they were queuing up for hours in a country with the world's second largest oil reserves.
| Doesn't seem to have the world's second-largest stock of gasoline yet, though... |
The British truck came under attack at 9:15am in front of a gas station where a man hurled a grenade and the vehicle was set on fire, said Ali Hussein, a taxi-driver who had been filling up his car at the time of the attack. Four British armoured vehicles and three jeeps came to seal off the area, while a crowd lobbed rocks at them. The soldiers fired in the air to ward off the crowd and then started to shoot rubber bullets, wounding at least four Iraqis, including a child, witnesses said.
| Why do people bring kids to riots? To get them wounded or killed? Which kids do they use? Spares? The neighbors'? |
The crowd, with some women in headscarves firing off Kalashnikovs in the air, grew to more than 2,000 and shouted in anger over the gasoline shortage in the city, they added. The mob poured down the street toward the British forces' headquarters. No soldiers were seen on the street at one point. "There is no fuel, and our situation is terrible," said Abdul Karim al-Mussawi, 45, a construction worker. Gas prices have soared from 150 dinars (US10 cents) for 20 litres (5.3 gallons) to 12,000 dinars ($US8). |