Basra Sinks Into Chaos

There is very little good news coming from Iraq. Even in the relatively stable south, in the oil rich city of Basra, political violence, assassinations, kidnappings have become a daily occurrence. British casualties have increased, but without much progress quelling the violence. One hundred and seventy six Iraqis have been assassinated. The quagmire of Iraq gets worse by the day.
New York Times

Iraq's new prime minister made an urgent visit to this increasingly lawless city on Wednesday, imposing a state of emergency and ordering leaders to cease their violent struggle for power and allow order to return to this oil-rich region. Maj. Gen. Hassan Swadi al-Saad, Basra's police chief, says he trusts only a fraction of his force. Gangs fight through their own police units.


Once seemingly immune to the violence that has plagued the rest of the country, Basra Province, the heart of Iraq's Shiite south, has sunk into chaos. Shiite political parties and their militias are fighting to control the provincial government and the region's oil wealth, contributing to some of the worst rates of killing since the invasion, with 174 killings in the past two months — double the amount from the previous two months, according to the Basra police.


[...]To a large degree, the violence has resulted from a power grab by Shiite factions left practically on their own to run the region and impose their own version of democracy while American and Iraqi officials in Baghdad have fought insurgents elsewhere. "Freedom of speech, freedom of expression: it just hasn't quite worked out the way it was planned," Brigadier Everard said. "They're not prepared to debate. They tend to do things at the end of a gun."


In a city that welcomed the American invasion, threats against Iraqis working for the American Embassy are now so widespread that they have not picked up its trash or pumped its sewers for three weeks.


One large prize is control of Basra's oil exports. The city is near the country's only seaport, and nearly all of Iraq's current exports flow through it. Political parties accuse one another of skimming from the flow and trying to control it. "As long as we have parties, it's impossible to ensure security," said one of Basra's senior security officials. "If you print this," the official added nervously, explaining why he wanted his name withheld, "I'll be killed."


One of the ways the parties have wielded influence is through control of portions of this city's 15,000-man police force, which is about double it's the authorized size. Rival parties and gangs fight one another through their own police units. The police chief, Maj. Gen. Hassan Swadi al-Saad, has said he trusts only a small fraction of his forces. MORE