Brits on LRDG Patrols in Maysan

[Kirkhill]

This business of the Queen's Royal Hussars working the desert borders in Iraq looks as if it might bear some discussion.
http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/48395/post-433416.html#msg433416

From the initial article:

head deep into the marshlands along the Iranian border to hunt gun smugglers.

We will live in the desert

1st question - which is it? Desert or Marshlands?
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/amarah.htm
According to Google Maysan has two borders with Iran. One, the shorter one in the south-east,  is centred on a marsh into which the Tigris drains.  The other is on the far side of a poorly irrigated plain on the Iranian side of the Tigris. Basically the border is the line where the foothills start rising into the Iranian mountains.  Marshes don't seem to be too likely an environment for Landrovers but a desert plain and foothills might be.

2.   How about Iraq?  Is the desert/marsh area in which the Brits plan to operate relatively clear of mines, etc?

Judging from this map it looks as if Maysan may have been spared much of the worst of the fighting.  Iraq pushed into Iran in Nov. 1980 and Iran pushed back North and South of Maysan effectively creating a salient in the area.
http://militaryhistory.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fusers.erols.com%2Fmwhite28%2Firaniraq.htm

"We are repositioning our forces to focus on border areas and deal with reports of smuggling of weapons and improvised explosive devices from across the border," British military spokesman Major Charlie Burbridge told Reuters.

Maysan is the area where the Paras were stoned where they first went into the area, where the Military Police detachment was slaughtered by the locals, where a cook got his picture in the paper as a "combat cook" because his bright shiny pans had shrapnel holes in them, where the bayonet charge was launched, where the VC was won ........  It hasn't been a quiet place.  The good news is that it apparently wasn't a quiet place for Saddam. He apparently had to keep some 20,000 troops in the area to keep his version of peace.  When the Brits started moving into the province and Saddam's lot bugged out the locals apparently thought it was because of their own action, declared themselves heroes, set up a government and then wondered what the Brits thought they were up to.

The Brits have not been welcome.  They probably weren't getting much accomplished sitting in Abu Naji getting stonked from time to time.  In the meantime there are border security issues of which smuggling may only be one.

How about the prospect of the Iranians being able to move conventional forces into the area?  Conversely is this an opportunity for the Brits to move up closer, possibly into Iranian territory?  That type of work would normally be done by the SAS.  On the other hand vehicle recce is what the QRH is supposed to be about.  As well, if there are lots of Landrovers making tracks all over the desert it might make it more difficult for the opposition to detect individual sets of tracks.  As well, the SAS seems to have enough on its plate these days on other taskings.

In addition to getting the troops out from under the "harassing fire" of the locals and getting them out of each other's faces, is this as much about going to a forward posture to lean into the Iranians as it is about stopping movement into Iraq?  Might this not make it easier to sneak OPs into Iranian territory?

With the jury still out on whether Iran/Syria/Hezbollah/Sadr/Badr won this last round, and the prospect of a new round in the wings, is this some forward planning to get recce assets out there?  Up until now the effort of the Maysan forces seems to have been focussed inwards on an insurgency different in type to that of the cities.  It seems to be more of a local tribal turf battle.  Maybe the Iraqi government and the Coalition have decided it is better just to let them get on with it and try to secure the borders in the mean time.

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0527,axe,65576,6.html

"In three or four months, we could withdraw from Maysan province. [Of course], we're not going anywhere unless it's agreed upon by the Iraqi government."

It's like he's dropped a stun grenade in the room. Noting the reporters' gaping jaws and wide eyes, Williams says he's surprised that they're surprised. "The Iraqis clearly don't want foreign forces here forever," says Williams. "And you've got to start the snowball somewhere."

And he says Maysan—cranky, suspicious, impoverished, Shia Maysan—is that place.

Lt. Col Andrew Williams CO KRH May 2005

http://www.antiwar.com/engelhardt/?articleid=7892

Opening thoughts for discussion.

PS - the "dry land" area is roughly 50 km by 90 km or 4500 km2

 

[Kirkhill]

Here's a curiosity.  Iran seems to have started a crackdown over a "wave of ethnic unrest" in the Iranian province next door to Maysan.  Bomb blasts in the capital.  The Iranians apparently, and no doubt unjustly, feel that the Brits might have something to do with this. 

I wonder what the odds are that the locals on the Iranian side have got uncles on the Iraqi side that were being "stifled" by the Brits. 

http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=8026

Iran hands down 10 death sentences over ethnic unrest
Tue. 25 Jul 2006
TEHRAN, July 25, 2006 (AFP) - A court in southwestern Iran handed down 10 death sentences Tuesday over a wave of ethnic unrest in the key oil province of Khuzestan, the state broadcaster's website reported.

"Ten people have been sentenced to be publicly hanged for the bomb attacks in (the provincial capital) Ahvaz for making war against God and acting against national security," the website said.

On January 24, eight people were killed and 24 wounded in two blasts in Ahvaz, where President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been due to make a visit which was cancelled at the last minute.

Khuzestan is home to a large community of ethnic minority Arabs and has been plagued by a wave of unrest over the past year.

Regime officials had put the blame on Britain and its troops based just across the border in southern Iraq. London denied the allegations.

In Scotland we had a family, the Armstrongs, that like the rest of the thugs that lived along the Anglo-Scots border made their living from stealing cattle and horses and got their wives by kidnapping.  They also find time to get together with the opposition in Carlisle for races and to share a pint with each other and to compare notes on their kidnapped sisters and daughters.  They stayed ahead of the law by declaring themselves to be Scots when the English Warden came round and English when the Scots Warden came round.  During the religious wars somebody famously asked one of the Armstrongs if he was Catholic or Protestant.  He replied "We's no Catholick.  We's Armstrangs".  By the way Pierre Elliot Trudeau's mother's kin were neighbours to the Armstrongs .... but I digress.

These folks, like the Pathans in Afghanistan, likely recognize the border only so as it suits their needs.  I doubt if they have ever recognized the supremacy of Baghdad, Tehran, Basra, Shiraz, Istanbul, Damascus or Cairo. 

The English and the Scots successfully employed the Armstrongs on both sides to help their causes for the best part of 400 years.  Every now and then the French put their oar in as well. 

Now if somebody wanted to make life miserable for Tehran - maybe you just indulge the locals in their natural instincts.

http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/index.php?storytopic=5

The Iranians seem to be bothered by miscreant Baluchis in the South East (next to the Herat district of Afghanistan), by Kurds in the north (next to the Iraqi kurds) and Arabs in the south.

The good news about the Armstrongs, the Elliots and their left handed or corry-fisted cousins the Carrs/Kerrs was that they liked fighting and stealing and could be bought cheaply - a relatively low budget way of tying down the other guys.  The bad news is they didn't stay bought.

Ahmadinejad is also threatening to shut down the media for promulgating falsehoods - some have had the temerity to accuse our devout hero of misappropriating the collection.

So how secure is his position and that of the Mullahs?  How close is the corner he is getting backed into?