BAGHDAD — Violent street clashes erupted between Shiite militiamen and British soldiers in the southern city of Basra after British tanks stormed a jail to free two of the troops.
The daylong violence in Iraq's second-largest city raised troubling questions about the relationship between British forces in charge of security and their Iraqi counterparts, in what once was considered a relatively safe area of the country.
The clashes, which involved members of cleric Muqtada Sadr's Al Mahdi militia, apparently began when British commandos fired on Iraqi police, who took them into custody.
Tanks then bore down on the jail, knocking down a wall before the men were freed, along with dozens of other detainees who took advantage of the chaos to escape, according to local reports and news agency accounts.
Iraqi and British officials gave varying accounts of the events. According to one Iraqi official, the soldiers moved in after Iraqi officials apparently detained a British delegation trying to negotiate the release of the two men originally arrested.
But another official said the police received an order from higher-ups to release the men. Similarly, a British Defense Ministry official in London told Reuters news service that the two soldiers were freed after talks.
But this morning, a ministry spokesman in London acknowledged that troops used an armored vehicle to smash down the prison wall, Reuters said.
The spokesman said the British entered the prison because the men had been handed over to local militiamen. It said the soldiers had been moved to a house in town.
In the clashes, three Iraqis were killed, including a child and two police officers. Twenty-seven people were injured.
Television images of the street fighting showed Iraqis firebombing an armored vehicle and a British soldier emerging with his uniform in flames. The BBC reported that the soldier was treated for minor injuries.
Though Basra has not suffered the same level of violence as other cities in Iraq, residents say peace has come at a cost. Armed militiamen rule the streets, enforcing perceived infractions of Islamic law with beatings and even killings, residents say.
In the once-cosmopolitan city, women no longer can go unveiled on the streets, and physicians have been beaten for treating female patients.
The militias have also infiltrated the police, taking orders from clerics instead of commanders.
