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Hostage Recalls Basra Kidnapping Ordeal

Kidnapped In Basra 10:56

To understand how Iraq has changed in the last year, look to the southern city of Basra, the heart of the Iraq's oil wealth. Earlier this month the city held peaceful elections. Iraqis walk the streets freely, and there's a semblance of law and order.

But last year at this time, Basra was in total chaos - run by warring Shiite factions, many of which were taking orders directly from across the border in Iran.

Back then Basra was the most dangerous city in Iraq, virtually cut off from all western media. Residents of the city lived in constant fear for their lives, and we found out firsthand what that meant when, in February 2008 one of our own, a producer working for 60 Minutes, was kidnapped.

Correspondent Lara Logan reports how Basra was transformed, how our colleague survived and what lessons the city's transformation may hold about the future of Iraq.



The gunmen who were holding Richard Butler made a video of their hostage some three weeks after he was kidnapped from his hotel room. "My name is Richard Butler. I'm a freelance producer-cameraman. I'm in Basra, I'm asking the Iraqi government and the British government to help me get released," he said into the camera.

Asked what happened to him, Butler told Logan, "Two-thirty in the morning, police burst into the room with their fatigues on, and their AK-47's."

He said the gunmen were wearing police uniforms, and took him in a police car to a police station. Most of the men, he told Logan, were hooded.

He knew it wasn't a good sign.

The police who kidnapped him, it turned out, were also militiamen. In fact, Iranian-backed Shiite militants had long taken over the Basra police force, even when the city was still under British control.

Then in the summer of 2007, when British forces withdrew from the city, dozens of militias - armed Shiite gangs - took full control of the streets.

Large-scale attacks that had been aimed at British troops dropped dramatically, but instead of getting better, life for the people got worse.

Basra became a city of fear and death. More than 100 women who didn't adhere to strict Islamic dress code ended up murdered. Most Iraqis who were kidnapped never came back, and the bodies of five American hostages taken in Basra were recovered after Richard Butler was kidnapped, along with his translator.

"They put plastic bags in our mouths, and taped our mouths up," Butler told Logan. "We had a bad feeling. And in fact, my interpreter said, 'You know, they're gonna shoot us.' And I thought he was probably right."

At that point, Butler acknowledged that he thought he might face death. "I actually thought that was probably gonna be the outcome."

Butler's translator was released within a few days, but his fate was far more uncertain. He was moved at least six times to different locations, often tied up in the trunk of a car, hooded and shackled most of the time.

Asked if he knew who was holding him, Butler said, "Not exactly. I actually was shown one Hezbollah propaganda video. And I heard the same soundtrack being played on their mobile phones as ring tones. So…"

To Butler, it indicated an Iran connection, because Hezbollah is supported by Iran.

"The fact that Richard heard Hezbollah ring tones and Hezbollah operatives were inside Basra does not surprise me in the least," says Col. Peter Mansoor, who at the time was the executive officer to America's top commander in Iraq.

"Iran had penetrated southern Iraq and it was very troubling," Mansoor remembered.

"Isn't it true in Basra there was a proxy fight, a proxy war of a kind going on?" Logan asked.

"Well, this proxy war that Iran is waging against the United States and Iraq has been going on for, almost since the beginning of the war," Mansoor explained.

"No one wanted to admit it at that time," Logan pointed out.

"I don't think initially we realized how deep Iranian involvement was," Mansoor said.

Nowhere was Iran more deeply involved than in Basra, Iraq's richest city. The militias it funded, trained and armed were in control, and the U.S. decided something had to be done.

Although a detailed U.S.-Iraqi battle plan was being worked out, Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki decided he wanted to launch the Basra incursion on his own.

"Prime Minister Maliki very much wanted this to be an Iraqi-planned, led and executed operation," Mansoor said.

"Put an Iraq face on it. Have them be responsible," Logan remarked.

"Right," Mansoor said.

So last March, the prime minister himself led around 30,000 Iraqi troops down to Basra - the first major Iraqi military mission since the U.S. invasion and a test of the strength for the Iraqi army.

By then Richard Butler, had been in captivity for nearly two months. "It sounded like World War Three starting up," he remembered.

"At that time, you were the only western journalist inside Basra. Describe for me what the battle around you was like," Logan asked.

"Well first of all it was very sudden It just exploded. I mean, you know, it was just huge explosions started. Gunfire just erupted," Butler remembered. "I could feel the shockwaves of each mortar round being launched. And I could feel the shockwave of each Katyusha (rocket) that they launched."

Like thousands of Iraqis, Butler was trapped in a city under siege.

"From the moment the fighting started, those areas of Basra, particularly, began running short of food and water. Did that affect you?" Logan asked.

"Yes. There was no food there to eat," he said. "It was pretty bad. I mean my diet was four boiled eggs and a tangerine, over a 12-day period."

The city was on the verge of a humanitarian crisis, with no end in sight.

The Iraqi army was unprepared to fight the well-armed militants, who quickly took the upper hand in the battle. What's more, at least 2,000 Iraqi soldiers deserted in sympathy with the militias.

The Iraqis were desperate, and turned to the U.S. for help. Eight hundred American soldiers joined the battle, along with U.S. advisors. U.S. bombers provided critical air support.

"I heard the American jets scream over the top. And then I heard the sickening sound of the house down the street being reduced to rubble. And that's when I really got worried," Butler remembered.

"When the bombs started falling?" Logan asked.

"Yeah. 'Cause there's nothing I could do about that," Butler explained.

The bombs missed the militia's safe house where Butler was being kept. The U.S. effort forced the militias to put down their arms, and they called for a ceasefire, sparing the Iraqi army a humiliating defeat.

With the Iraqi army finally in control of Basra, images of militia leaders were slashed, a sign the people were happy they were no longer in charge.

Two weeks later, Iraqi soldiers stormed the house where Butler was being held.

"I told him I'm a British hostage. And then the second soldier said, 'You're safe now. Come with me. Come with me. You're safe.' And he pulled me through the door, and down the corridor. And there's a lot of gunfire in the corridor. He was firing with his left hand, up the staircase, down the corridor. And at the same time, he's got his arm around me, almost lifting me off the ground, to move down. I mean, my legs were so stiff, you know, to suddenly need to move quickly like that," Butler said.

His legs were stiff because he had been tied up. "And he took me out into the street," Butler remembered. "And we hugged. And he was giving me cigarettes, packets of cigarettes not one at a time and then everybody started giving me cigarettes. And they're coming up and slapping me on the back, and saying, 'Good, you know, Iraqi Army good' and thumbs up. And several people said to me, 'This is the new Iraq.' Which was quite emotional."

Today, Basra is a different city. The markets are full. Women can once again walk the streets without fear of showing their faces. The waterfront is bustling with activity, all thanks to the nearly 40,000 Iraqi troops who have remained on hand to enforce the peace with the help of several thousand coalition combat troops and advisors.

"People in Basra now describe you know, a better sense of a wellbeing and security. The markets are open. But how fragile is this peace?" Logan asked Mansoor.

"Well, I think, throughout Iraq, the peace is fragile," he replied.

"Are you concerned about the fact that the militias haven't really gone anywhere? They still have access to their backers, their training and weapons support, and financial support across the border inside Iran," Logan said.

"The ability of the Iraqi government to combat the militias, and keep them from operating, keep them from dominating urban areas, these are the great issues facing Iraq, going forward," Mansoor explained.

Asked if Basra is a kind of blueprint for the rest of the country, Mansoor told Logan, "Well, I think in one crucial sense it is. And that is that it shows that Iraqi forces from all over Iraq can come together, can fight a successful battle against a fairly capable enemy and prevail."

Since the Basra assault in the spring, Iraqi troops have recently taken over other hotspots throughout the country, where like in Basra, a significant Iraqi troop presence is supported by U.S. advisors.

"Historians will look back and see Basra as a turning point in this war. One in which the war goes from being more of a coalition effort to one of being more of an Iraqi effort," Mansoor said.

"What does that mean, in terms of withdrawing troops, when, how, how fast, how many?" Logan asked.

"What it means is that we slowly withdraw our combat forces as Iraqi forces are able to take over the situation in various areas but you allow the Iraqis to fight their war, and I think that is the way ahead," Mansoor replied.

Produced By Peter Klein

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