Basra

Near Basra, ICRC contractor was repairing a water pipe after it was damaged by an explosion during the war.

So the Basra handover is an opportunity for the U. S. to wash its hands of a "mess" for which it has no solution.

The British, after all, gave up their bases inside the city last summer and have been hunkered down on a base at Basra's airport ever since.

Against many expectations, Basra is steadily being transformed into a Mini-Me of the Kurdish city in northern Iraq, Sulaymaniya.

In Basra too, after an astonishing turn-round, the Iraqi army seems to have bested the Sadrists.

And Major James Gasson-Hargraves, the British commander in Basra, said the Iraqis wanted to take control.

The three rockets fired at the British military base at Basra airport within an hour of his statement are another.

But officials say if the Iraqi armed forces are strengthened and security improves in Basra, British troops will be able to return home.

Another factor that has influenced British thinking is the difference between the security situation in Basra and that in Baghdad.

Residents of Basra say crime and terrorism have flourished since the Britain handed control back to Iraqi forces in December.

Thousands of people protested in Basra over the weekend demanding police do more to stop rampant crime and restore order.

But most scholars believe that it was bound for the Middle East, possibly the Iraqi port city of Al Basrah (now Basra).

Iraqi officials in Basra say that over the past six months the Americans had already taken a lead in securing the city.

The price of crude oil has risen 2 dollars a barrel after a key Iraq oil pipeline was blown up in Basra .

"Any Saddam Hussein who says he's not doing it for the money is a liar, " said Saddam Hussein, 57, of Basra.

"This one is on the Iraqis" the American official said of Basra. "It's not up to us to fix this one. "

A smart hotel with a conference centre has just opened in Basra. An entrepreneur says he is planning another on a huge boat in the river.

December 5, 2011 - Honeywell announced an expansion of its Iraqi investment with the opening of a full-service office in Basra.

Caption : IRAQ WITHDRAWAL: Iraqi security forces showed peace signs as they patrolled Basra, Iraq, Monday. U.

British forces were based mainly in southern Iraq, around the city of Basra.

As the night neared a close, I met a young man named Mohammad who had come from Basra, in Iraq.

That old moan by W. C. Fields, the American funny man, echoes the more recent feelings of many a resident in Basra.

So Basra will continue to be a high-stakes front in the intra-Shi'a fight for control of southern Iraq.

More than half of its population lives in four mixed cities, Baghdad, Basra, Mosul and Kirkuk.

Mr. Joda, a native of Basra, came to Karbala in 2004 to fish and raise water buffaloes in the lush wetlands that reminded him of his home.

However, violence has intensified in Iraq since Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered a crackdown on Shi'ite militias in Basra last month.

Officials in Iraq say a car bomb in the country's second city Basra has killed at least 10 people and injured many others.

Britain has taken a back seat in Basra as the troops focus on training and supporting the Iraqi security forces.

Born in Basra, al-Haytham was a preeminent thinker of his age.

The occupation of Basra ended in dismal defeat; the operation in southern Afghanistan has scarcely looked much better.

On Saturday, an Iraqi police general was fatally shot near the southern city of Basra.

Royal Dutch Shell expected to clinch a deal this month to get natural gas from oil extracted in Basra province.

The fighting in Basra has shaken up Iraqi politics, he claimed, boosting Mr Maliki and putting Mr Sadr on the defensive.

News reports say Iraqi security forces used batons to disperse protesters who rallied in the southern city of Basra.

In a separate incident today, a US soldier was killed in a roadside bombing near Basra.

In mainly Shia Basra, most of the insurgency is aimed at British soldiers rather than Iraqis.

Iraqi officials say much work is needed to secure and restore the port of Umm Qasr in the oil- rich province of Basra .

Earlier this year, Sadrist violence had risen, culminating in March in a big battle for the southern port city of Basra.

With the withdrawal of Britain's last combat troops from Basra, that is no longer the case.

British forces have been criticised by some quarters in Iraq for rarely leaving the Basra base since late-2007.

These reportedly sent servicemen running for cover and the most senior British officer in Basra diving under his desk.

The idea of the struggle for existence has been traced as far back as al - Jahiz, a Muslim theologian and scholar born in Basra around 776.

Basra Province contains the lion's share of Iraq's oil and its only port.

With such riches around it and Iraq's only port on its doorstep, the city of Basra could become a wealthy oil hub.

He then went on to Basra to meet British troops.

Basra fishermen freely admit that they make far more from the trade than from fishing.

The numbers of cases are remaining stable in Basra, Baghdad, Dahuk, Mosul and Tikrit.

But after his fall Basra was gradually taken over by ferocious Islamist militias.

Earlier in the day, Obama visited the southern city of Basra where he met with troops and military officials.

A car bomb near the city of Basra in southern Iraq has killed 10 people and wounded many others, local police say.

In Basra, the south's biggest city, they smashed government offices.

Some even fear that Mahdi fighters will again target women's rights activists, as they did in Basra in 2007 and 2008.

Her father Simon - a Lance Corporal - was serving in Basra at the time.

They added that "the provincial and military leadership in Basra still have work to do and we will assist as requested. "

For Iraqis, though, Basra remains a violent place, with scores of people killed every month.

Water is also used to wash oil of salt before it is processed at the Basra refinery.

Create the conditions for the Iraqis to resume control of Basra airport so that it can return to full civilian use.

A man works the desiccated marshland outside Basra, Iraq, on Nov.

Iraq dismissed 1, 300 soldiers and policemen who perfomed poorly in Basra.

Britain has 4, 100 troops based in the southern city of Basra, while Australia has 1, 000 soldiers also in the south.

Since last year, when the militias were chased out of Basra, shipping has increased by 300 percent at the port.

"We can't control what God does, " said Rashid Thajil Mutashar, the deputy director of water resources in Basra.

Our troops have been to lands unknown to many Americans a decade ago -- to Kandahar and Kabul; to Mosul and Basra.

Librarian Of Basra: A True Story From Iraq