The Basra prison incident was an event involving British troops in Basra, Iraq. On 19 September 2005, two undercoverBritish Special Air Service soldiers disguised in Arab civilian garments and headdresses opened fire on Iraqi Police officers after having been stopped at a roadblock. Iraqi police found explosives in the British soldiers vehicle. Two Iraqi officers were shot, at least one of whom died. The two British men were arrested and taken to the Al Jameat police station. The two SAS operators were part of Operation Hathor whose objective was keeping an Iraqi Police officer under surveillance. Tension was already high between the Iraqi Police and British forces and when Iraqi policeman tried to pull the operators from their vehicle at the roadblock, they opened fire, killing two of the policemen. The SAS men drove off with Iraqi Police in pursuit, but feeling they could not outrun them they decided to stop and talk their way out of it. The Iraqi police beat and arrested them. In response, twenty members of A Squadron 22nd SAS Regiment and a platoon of paratroopers from the Special Forces Support Group flew from Baghdad to Basra. Other SAS operators tracked down their two colleagues to Al Jameat police station and then withdrew and called in Hathor's QRF in Basra, whilst a predator drone fed the UKJOC a live feed on the prison. Members of The 1st Battalion The Staffordshire Regiment were the spearhead of the operation, taking the lead in the operation to rescue the 2 SAS soldiers after significant small arms fire and RPG attacks the men from the Battalion Assaulted the police station securing it ensuring the safe extraction of the 2 SAS soldiers. British tanks and infantry encircled the jail where the men were being held. A crowd gathered and began throwing stones and petrol bombs at the tanks, setting at least one ablaze. Three British soldiers were injured and, according to some reports, two demonstrators were killed. New intelligence suggested that the two prisoners had been moved to a house not far from the prison and the British feared that they would be executed by Iraqi Hezbollah. Because of this, the rescue plan was altered so that a few members of A squadron would assault the prison with regular army personnel and vehicles while the main SAS ground force assaulted the house. After nightfall, around 9pm, the British Army stormed the prison and house where the SAS men were being held. The SAS assault on the house met no resistance; they found the two prisoners in a locked room. According to the governor of Basra province, Mohammed al-Waili, the British had used "more than ten tanks backed by helicopters" to carry out the raid. The assault on the prison was spearheaded by Warrior IFV's and Challenger tanksbreaking down the walls and destroying cars and flimsy buildings. The British assault allowed 150 prisoners to flee the prison. The Ministry of Defence initially denied storming the prison. In later statements, it said that the soldiers would have likely been killed, and that the police force had been infiltrated by illegal militia groups. Muhammad al-Waili denounced the event as "barbaric, savage and irresponsible". On 25 December 2006, British troops from The 1st Battalion The Staffordshire Regiment again raided the Al Jameat station, killing seven gunmen and freeing 127 prisoners being held by Shia militias there. They then blew up the building. A British Army spokesperson stated that the 127 prisoners freed had been tortured and that there were fears that they were about to be executed.
