War On Reality Part 85 ; PM Gives Basra Fighters Deadline

Nouri al-Maliki has given gunmen in Basra a 72 hour period to give up their weapons and surrender. Meanwhile, the British forces that retreated to the airport in December remain there and are not helping the Iraqi army deal with the increase in violence.

Tell The Truthiness ; Is this as bad as it gets, or is Basra slipping back into it's previous lawless state?

Then There Were 5000 ; 250 Head Home Soon

250 soldiers are heading back home early from Basra in the latest phase of withdrawal for UK forces.

A total of 500 are due to return under the overall plan to handover Basra Palace.

Tell The Truthiness ; If those 250 of the full 500 are brought home even earlier again, we'll let you know.

Troops Show Their True Feelings In Basra Pullout

It seems that those UK troops leaving Basra couldn't keep their real feelings quiet, as this picture shows.

Tell The Truthiness ; Some details coming in about more UK troops leaving, we'll post when we get the details.