Basrah in the News

It seems like one of our duties in addition to advising the Iraqi Army is to escort Media around the Basrah area. In the last few weeks we have seen news crews from CNN and ABC as well as an AP reporter. I thought I might share some links to some of the news stories that were published after their visits.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/05/20/basra.killings/index.html#cnnSTCText

This is the CNN story. The reporter and the camera man came to the finishing phases of a clearing operation that we conducted in the Al Quibla area. The Brigade was looking for illegal caches of weapons and ammunition as well as propaganda from the Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army organization. Most of the pictures that I posted on the Iraqi Market place were taken the day this reporter visited.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080612/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_basra;_ylt=An_3y

This story was by an AP reporter, Kim Gamel, who spent two days visiting us. The picture in the upper left corner is of the kabob stand that I talked about in my last post (Where SBG Sabah likes to "hold court" occassionally at night). It was the first time that the AP had sent an actual reporter to Basrah in over two years instead they had been relying on local stringers to get their stories from the area.

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=5208469

This video clip just ran last Thursday 19 June on the ABC evening news. It actually consists of a lot of stock footage taken during the Mehdi Army uprising this spring. Don't worry I haven't seen a fire fight since I've been down here and the only shooting I've actually seen was when an Iraqi Policeman accidently fired his AK-47 and the riccochit hit another Iraqi Policeman. The police seem to have a hard time leaving their weapons on safe, but we have started reminding them everytime we go out with them to leave their weapons on safe, it seems to be having an effect. You briefly see a glimpse of my Team Chief and the inside of our compound during this video.

Enjoy