Let the Iraqis sort out the mess in Basra

Retired US Army General Jack Keane, never shy about giving advice, says the British should consider sending troops back into Basra to fight the Shia militia, particularly those of the cleric Moqtada al Sadr.

Keane thinks he knows the answer to Iraq's current woes as one of the architects of the so-called 'surge' policy. His latest diagnosis and cure for Iraq, however, is virtually guaranteed to kill the patient.

Fighting is now under way for the second day for the oil city of Basra between units of the Iraqi army and a collection of militias, led by the Mahdi Army of the Sadrists. British forces, who quit the city in September, have sat and watched from their base at the international airport.

They have helped the Iraqi army - who they trained - with intelligence and aerial

surveillance. So far 40 people have died in the fighting, which has now spread north to parts of Baghdad.

Gen Keane has just told the BBC that a new 'comprehensive approach' is needed to defeat the militias in Basra, who are being directed by Iran to ensure that Iraq stays weak. But this is a gross oversimplification.

There are now about seven factions and militias trying to take over Basra, which controls Iraq's richest oil fields - and it is the oil that is the main target of the fighting. Almost no militia commanders would take direct orders from Tehran, least of all Moqtada al Sadr.

The surge plan has multiplied the militias across Iraq, each fighting for their own. Even the divisions of the Iraqi army act just like a militia. And the army is being directed politically by the prime minister Nuri al Maliki, himself a Shia of the Dawa party.

The British don't have the forces to change things in Basra, nor should they try. It would only add another layer to the militias' conflict, in which they should not be involved.