Britain frees two detained soldiers in Basra government jail

The Iraqi defense ministry confirmed that the British army freed two of its soldiers by means of force from a prison run by the Iraqi police in al-Basra city on Monday evening.

A source in the Iraqi defense ministry said that a "large force of the British soldiers cordoned the police building and destroyed its main entrance and released the two British and other 150 Iraqi prisoners."

A source at the Iraqi ministry of interior said that "some 6 tanks demolished the walls of the prison and then broke into it to free the two British soldiers." The source added that scores of Iraqi prisoners who were held in the prison fled during these incidents.

A spokeswoman for the British defense office in London indicated "negotiations to free the two British soldiers." Despite this remark to negotiations, the British spokeswoman did not deny reports on that British tanks broke into the prison.

AP attributed the governor of al-Basra Muhammad al-Wa'ili as confirming that 10 British tanks broke into the central prison in an operation which he had described as "Barbaric, and irresponsible aggression."

The agency quoted the governor as making clear that helicopters escorted the attack operation on the prison and the process of destroying it, and that it kidnapped the prisoners to unidentified destination..

Despite the calm in the southern area of Iraq, where 8500 British soldiers are deployed, the area has witnessed in recent weeks escalated attacks against the British forces.