9.2 | 23
May 2003 to June 2004
Representative
in a group chaired by the Iraqi Prime Minister. ‘NSC+’ would
operate on
the
principle that:
“Before
taking actions that directly affect the operational activities or
security of the
other
force, they should undertake consultations and agree a way
forward.”
1011.
A Military
Co-ordination Committee would undertake “formal
co-ordination”,
supported
by liaison officers in each HQ. The Cabinet Office paper proposed
that initially
Iraqi
forces would be assigned to work with the MNF, and be under their
operational
control.
The arrangements would be described by an exchange of letters
between the
Iraqi
Defence Minister and the Commander of the MNF.
1012.
On 14 May,
there was “intense fighting” outside al-Amara “in which
around
20 members
of the militia were killed and others detained”.568
1013.
The following
day the Chief of Police for Majar al-Kabir was shot
dead.569
1014.
In his
book Occupational
Hazards, Mr Rory
Stewart, the CPA’s Deputy
Governorate
Co-ordinator in Maysan, suggested there might have been a link
between
the Chief
of Police’s murder and the fighting of the previous
day:
“The police
chief of Majar, who was from Badr, met the Prince [Karim
Mahmood
Hattab,
brother of the Governor of Maysan] … The Prince accused the police
chief
of warning
the Coalition of the ambush and held the police chief responsible
for
the deaths
of these men, who were from the Prince’s tribe. There was a
heated
argument …
The police chief was shot dead. Many claimed Governor
Riyadh
[the Governor
of Maysan] had killed him.”
The
incident outside al-Amara on 14 May became known as the “Battle of
Danny Boy”.570
There were
subsequent allegations that, following the incident, UK soldiers
unlawfully
killed and
mistreated a number of detainees.571
The
Government announced on 25 November 2009 that it was establishing
the
Al Sweady
Public Inquiry to look into these allegations. It published its
conclusions on
17 December
2014.
1015.
When
Mr Blair spoke to President Bush on 15 May, he suggested that
“things
might look
very different in a few weeks time if we handled the next stage
right”.572
568
Minute
Stewart to Rycroft, 20 May 2004, ‘GOC MND(SE) – Iraq
Update’.
569
Stewart
R. Occupational
Hazards: My Time Governing Iraq. Picador,
2006.
570
BBC
News, 25
November 2009, Bob
Ainsworth to outline Iraq ‘war crimes’ inquiry.
571
House of
Commons, Official
Report, 25
November 2009, columns 81-82WS.
572
Letter
Morys to Adams, 17 May 2004, ‘Prime Minister’s discussion with
President Bush on 15 May’.
373