ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Sep 21 - Reid Meets Jaafari Over Basra Jail Clash.

Iraq's PM Ibrahim Al Jaafari, and UK defence secretary John Reid, meet to discuss Britain's military presence in Iraq in the aftermath of an incident that sorely tested the goodwill on both sides. In dramatic scenes in Basra on Sep 19 evening, UK armoured vehicles bulldozed the wall of a Basra police station jail in a bid to free two UK Special Forces soldiers before they apparently discovered that the men had been handed over to a local militia. Addressing a news conference after the meeting Jaafari said he did not yet have full details of Sep 19 incident but had ordered a full inquiry. He said: It will not affect the relationship between Iraq and Britain". A spokesman for Jaafari had earlier described the British operation against the jail as "a very unfortunate development" but his office later denied there was any crisis in relations with the British. Reid also denied there had been any "fundamental breakdown of trust" between the two sides as a result of the action. "I stand by the action that was taken but that should in no way diminish the fact that in Basra province, and indeed throughout Iraq, in the vast majority of exercises that are now being taken against counter-insurgency, Iraq forces are working shoulder-to-shoulder with the British and multinational forces there", he said after his meeting with Jaafari. The British soldiers were captured on Sep 19 a day after British forces in Basra arrested two leading members of the outlawed Mahdi Army which is loyal to the radical theologian Muqtada Al Sadr. One Iraqi member of parliament said that following the arrest of the SAS men, the Mahdi Army had tried to take the men hostage to exchange them for its two leaders. But Bayan Jabor, Iraq's interior minister, has disputed the British military's account, telling the BBC that the men had never left Iraqi police custody and had not been handed to militants. The local police forces have been heavily infiltrated by insurgents and militias, however, Dr Mouwafak Al Rubaie, Iraq's National Security Adviser, acknowledged on Sep 20. Rubaie said Iraq's security forces, and the "police in particular" had been penetrated by some of the insurgents in many parts of Iraq. "We are putting in place a very scrupulous, very meticulous vetting procedure in the process of recruiting a new batch of police and Iraqi army, which will, if you like, clean our security forces as well as stop any penetration in future from the insurgents and terrorists", he told BBC's Newsnight programme. Col Bill Dunham, the chief of staff for the multinational force in Basra, said it had been acknowledged that insurgents had infiltrated the security forces. "It is something that affects the Iraqi police across Iraq as a whole", he said. "We will be looking to work with the Iraqi authorities to address this acknowledged problem and take the issue forward". The SAS men appear to have been quickly handed over to militiamen by police and the mission to rescue them was launched amid fears they could face summary execution. The men, who were travelling undercover, were arrested after allegedly becoming involved in a shootout with Iraqi police at a checkpoint. Iraqi officials claimed the UK soldiers had shot dead a local policeman and wounded at least one other. The SAS men are believed to have feared the men were insurgents dressed in police uniforms. In dramatic scenes outside the jail, British troops were confronted by an angry mob, hundreds strong, throwing stones and petrol bombs and several soldiers suffered minor injuries. After they discovered the two SAS men were not in the jail, Iraqi police were confronted with a 30mm cannon and revealed they had been given to the militia, according to a report by the Press Association. Brig John Lorimer, commanding officer of 12 Mechanised Brigade in Basra, said: We will be following up with the authorities in Basra why the soldiers were not immediately handed over to the multinational forces as Iraqi law shows that they should have been. "It is of deep concern that British soldiers held by the police should then end up being held by militia", he added. Southern Iraq is home to several Shiite militias, including one that is loyal to Sadr, who fiercely opposes the presence of foreign troops on Iraqi soil.