UK Troops Bring Fuel to Riot-Hit Basra

British forces were today at the centre of a massive operation to bring fuel into Basra as the southern Iraqi city fell quiet after a weekend of violent rioting.

Millions of litres of petrol were due to be brought into the city under military escort in an effort to combat fuel shortages.

Electricity has already been restored to parts of Basra by British troops following the riots over fuel and power shortages.

A British patrol was forced to return fire yesterday when it was attacked, and two assailants were killed, a British military spokesman said.

There were no British casualties and two Iraqis who escaped were being pursued.

A former British Army Gurkha working for the Coalition Provision Authority was shot dead yesterday in an ambush as he travelled in one of two cars delivering mail and cash to a UN building.

A protester was also killed when an angry crowd tried to block the main bridge leading to the airport and the British military headquarters. It was not clear who shot the demonstrator.

British military spokesman Major Charles Mayo told BBC Radio 4 Today programme that troops were grappling with out-of-date and poorly-maintained infrastructure supplying power to the city.

He added that some copper in the power lines had been pulled down by “small elements” of the Iraqi people in order to smelt it and smuggle it out of the country.

He said: “We have got over 95% of the population in Basra well behind us. It is just a small minority who are intent on causing some disruption to what we are trying to achieve with the Iraqi people.

“We have got some British engineers working with Iraqi contractors who are erecting one of the key power lines from one of the power stations.

“We are also moving vehicles down to rendezvous with some road petrol tankers, taking them down to some barges where we have sourced some 15-20 million litres of fuel.

“We are going to take that fuel under escort up to the fuel stations and make sure that the fuel goes into the tanks of those stations, then maintain a presence at the stations and make sure that the fuel is sold at the correct price.

“A number of these riots were caused by black market fuel station owners selling fuel at black market prices.”

Basra had been one of the quietest cities in the country before the rioting erupted on Saturday after a power cut in temperatures of up to 50C (122F) enraged the population, with people unable to pump petrol into their cars or use air conditioning.

Around 1,000 demonstrators blocked roads with burning tyres and threw rocks at vehicles and British troops, who suffered only minor injuries, the British military said.

British troops patrolling the area gave away their own fuel in an effort to calm the protesters.

The city’s newly-appointed governor appeared on television to appeal for calm as the rioting appeared to escalate and attacks on Western vehicles increased, culminating in the shooting of the former Gurkha yesterday.

Earlier in the day, two armoured vehicles were attacked after coming across a small crowd surrounding a hastily-made burning road block, an Army spokesman said.

Two rocket propelled grenades were fired from the side of the road, hitting two empty oil tankers being escorted by the vehicles.

British forces returned fire and two “enemy” casualties were identified after the incident, the British military said.

The British-led Multinational Division South East said this was the only shooting incident British troops were involved in yesterday.

Soldiers from the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment and King’s Own Regiment are on patrol in the city, part of a 10,500-strong British force spearheading the Multinational Division South East.

British troops have been stationed at petrol station forecourts and Royal Engineers are working to patch up the city’s battered power lines and pylons.