BAGHDAD -- Insurgents mounted another attack against Iraq's Shiites on Saturday, as an explosion in the southern city of Basra ripped through a group of pilgrims headed to a mosque to commemorate one of the holiest Shiite holidays. The explosion hit a tent where pilgrims were being fed around 8:30 a.m., killing at least 53 people, including several...
UMM QASR, Iraq -- The road approaching the Basra Gateway hotel in southern Iraq crosses a landscape so blighted with trash and spilled crude oil, which shimmers in gigantic pools in the sand, that it is difficult to imagine any guests ever passing this way. When they do arrive, guests are greeted by a jumble of concrete blocks, sand bags and barbed...
BAGHDAD -- Bombs exploding in and around Baghdad on Saturday shattered the stillness of a crystalline autumn day in the desert as violence continued during the American military withdrawal from Iraq. By early evening, the death toll had risen to at least 11 from explosions on a highway to the west and in a market for secondhand clothes in the...
Basra er en by i Irak, beliggende cirka 550 kilometer sydøst for Bagdad. Byen har 2,6 millioner indbyggere og er den næststørste by i Irak. Basra ligger ved floden Shatt al-Arab og er Iraks vigtigste havneby.
Den danske hærstyrke i Irak på cirka 470 soldater havde base i Camp Danevang syd for Basra.
Fra at været en forholdsvis rolig by steg volden i Basra siden 2006.
Den 10. august 2007 blev de danske landtrypper trukket hjem.
De blev dog erstattet af 50 soldater med fire Fennec-helikoptere, der samarbejder med britiske styrker.
Denne helikopterstyrke er planlagt til at blev trukket hjem omkring 1. januar 2008.
Den dansk-irakiske forfatterinde Duna Ghali er født i Basra og har en uddannelse fra Basra universitet.