British forces have detained 12 people in southern Iraq suspected of links to a surge in attacks against allied troops, the Ministry of Defence said. Maj Steven Melbourne said there were "certain individuals" the army needed to question over the assaults. Sources told the BBC some of those detained were Iraqi policemen. The raid came two weeks after UK armoured vehicles smashed down the walls of a Basra police station, sparking protests in the city.
The BBC's Caroline Hawley, in Baghdad, said sources told her the arrested officers were from the same Basra police station. Maj Stevens said in a statement: "There was a single raid last night in Basra in which 12 individuals were detained and an amount of weapons were confiscated. "This was in response to attacks on multi-national forces in the last couple of weeks."
Iraqi police and followers of the radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr have told our correspondent the men were detained after a raid on a private house. They said some of the detained, who are thought to be supporters of Mr Sadr, were police officers and others were civilians. British officials have expressed fears in the past that Shia militias have infiltrated the local police.
Mr Sadr and his followers, known as the Mehdi Army, have long opposed foreign troops' presence in Iraq. There were no reports of violence during Friday's raid. |