Industry Figure Tom Chappell

You may have seen news reports recently about British forces “handing off” their major base in Amarah to Iraqi military forces for the Iraqis to take over security for the region. The actual situation is quite a bit less rosy:

First, the British withdrew from Camp Abu Naji near Amara. They only gave the Iraqis one day notice. This short notice suggests that the evacuation was done under considerable duress; one suspects that the British position was becoming untenable because of repeated Shiite guerrilla attacks (there were only 1200 British troops there). When they left, they left behind nearly $300,000 in equipment, intending that the Iraqi police should have the use of the base.

Muqtada al-Sadr and his followers on the provincial Governing Council crowed that the Mahdi Army was the first Iraqi group to force a substantial withdrawal of Coalition troops from an Iraqi territory, according to Amit Paley. The LA Times says that the Mahdi Army boasted of having forced the British troops to leave so abruptly.

While a small contingent of Iraqi security forces (mainly recruited from the Badr Corps and the Mahdi Army) was on the base, they professed themselves helpless when some 5000 looters, some armed with AK 47 machine guns, showed up to strip it bare. The poor British officer corps was reduced to maintaining that the camp had been kept in perfectly good order on their departure. God, they must hate Blair.

The day before, the Iraqi troops at the base briefly mutinied when they were told of a plan to transfer them to Baghdad. They were from local families and complained that this was a plan to “get rid of them.” The government relented and left them in Amara. It may as well have. If they couldn’t stop the looting of their own base on their home turf, what good would they have been in Baghdad?

Amara Base Looted as British Withdraw
Informed Comment
August 26, 2006

The Brits plan for 600 soldiers to slip “into the marshlands and deserts of eastern Maysan in an attempt to secure the Iranian border…[using] lightweight Land Rovers…They expect to become a flexible, mobile force with no fixed base and receive supplies by airdrops.”

“This is the first Iraqi city that has kicked out the occupier!” trumpeted a message from [Moqtada al-]Sadr’s office that played on car-mounted speakers in Amarah, capital of the southern province of Maysan. “We have to celebrate this occasion!”

A crowd of as many as 5,000 people, including hundreds armed with AK-47 assault rifles, attacked Camp Abu Naji and hauled away window and door frames, corrugated roofing and metal pipes, despite the presence of a 450-member Iraqi army brigade meant to guard the base.

“The looters stole everything — even the bricks,” said Ahmed Mohammed Abdul Latief, 20, a student at Maysan University. “They almost leveled the whole base to the ground.”

The volatile situation worsened when the 2nd Battalion of the Iraqi army’s 4th Brigade mutinied and attacked a local military outpost, said [an] official, who spoke on condition that his name not be used.

“British Leave Iraqi Base; Militia Supporters Jubilant”
The Washington Post
August 25, 2006

“Looters Ransack Base After British Depart”
The Washington Post
August 26, 2006

Confronted by Iraqi troops…some looters continued to ransack the base, taunting the security men by saying, “Shoot me!” They then burned what remained of the facility, which had been an Iraqi army camp before the British moved in after the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003.

“Looters Descend on Iraqi Camp After British Soldiers Pull Out”
Los Angeles Times
August 26, 2006