9.2 | 23
May 2003 to June 2004
288.
That committee
had begun work by 21 August.155
289.
On 18 August,
Lt Gen Robert Fry, who had become Deputy Chief of Defence
Staff
(Commitments)
in July, briefed the Chiefs of Staff that there had
been:
“… a
decline in Iraqi consent to the Coalition in MND(SE) due to the
failure by the
Coalition
to deliver improvements in essential services …
“There is
no doubt that across the MND(SE) the honeymoon period that
followed
the
conflict is now over. The Shia leaders are suggesting that the
Coalition now has
a short
period of grace before a significant deterioration in local
consent. Without
progress in
infrastructure, MND(SE) is finding that work in security sector
reform,
political
development, welfare provision and so forth is
stalled.”156
290.
An update for
the AHMGIR, produced on 20 August, said that:
“Basra is
now calmer, following last week’s disturbances … However …
the
willingness
of local leaders to issue, and the public to respond to, appeals
for calm
may be
short-lived if the Coalition cannot maintain at least the current
level of
service
delivery. Security across MND(SE) remains volatile … Security
concerns
have led
Japanese staff in CPA(South) to be withdrawn.”157
291.
In a meeting
on the same day, the Chiefs of Staff were told that:
“There had
been no deterioration of the situation in the UK AO, possibly as a
result
of the
order for restraint from Ayatollah Sistani and possibly as a
rejection of the
call for
action by the Shia against the Coalition from Saddam Hussein. Most
of the
MND(SE)
contacts over the reporting period were related to criminal
activity.”158
292.
Two days after
that update, there was an attack on a Royal Military Police
patrol,
in which
three were killed159
and another
seriously injured.160
Up to five
Iraqis were also
understood
to have been killed or seriously injured.
293.
UK forces in
theatre responded by restricting their movements to
essential
294.
The following
week, another British soldier was killed162
in an incident
in Maysan.163
155
Briefing
Cabinet Office, 20 August 2003, ‘Iraq: Update for Ministers, 21
August 2003’.
156
Minute
DCDS(C) to COSSEC, 18 August 2003, ‘Essential services in
MND(SE)’.
157
Briefing
Cabinet Office, 20 August 2003, ‘Iraq: Update for Ministers, 21
August 2003’.
158
Minutes, 20
August 2003, Chiefs of Staff meeting.
159
Major
Matthew Titchener, Company Sergeant Major Colin Wall and Corporal
Dewi Pritchard.
160
Public
hearing White, 21 July 2010, page 18.
161
Minute
No.10 [junior official] to Prime Minister, 23 August 2003, ‘Update:
Iraq; MEPP’.
162
Fusilier
Russell Beeston.
163
Letter
Williams to No.10 [junior official], 28 August 2003, ‘Iraq:
situation in UK area of operations’.
255