Basra’s Security Endangered by Drug Smugglers, Terrorists
Az-Zaman conducted an interview with the Iraqi police chief in Basra about security there. He said the city’s security was threatened by al-Qaeda terrorism and by criminal gangs. The latter are involved in drug smuggling and in looting the materials being used for reconstruction and reselling them elsewhere. He said that drug smugglers had set up a number of unauthorized docks along the Shatt al-Arab waterway that feeds into the Persian Gulf.