In a sign that the insurgency is expanding into once peaceful areas like Basra, AFP reports:
Clashes erupted between British troops and Shiite Muslim militiamen in Iraq's southern city of Basra Friday, causing one British casualty, said an aide of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr and the military.Basra was once a bright spot in Iraq. Under British occupation, it had been a relatively calm city. It now seems that the British, too, are kowtowing to the Mehdi army. Just who is really in charge over there?
The Mehdi Army opened fire after coalition forces violated an agreement not to drive in front of the street that leads to the cleric's Basra office, said Sadr's Basra representative, Sheikh Assad Basri.
"The British soldiers fired back. There was rocket-propelled grenade and light arms fire," Basri said.
