IT BEGAN as a hunt for militia leaders in Basra including a terrorist known to British forces as the Turban or the Turbinator and ended with “26-27 enemy” killed, according to an account by an independent American blogger embedded with the British military in Iraq.

Michael Yon was with UK troops as they launched a bold attempt to flush fighters into battle in daylight last week as part of Operation Arezzo, named after the site of a medieval Tuscan battle. The town was liberated by the British during the second world war.

In his dispatch, Yon describes how UK forces “baited the enemy” into fighting. Preparing for battle to the sound of the Rolling Stones’ Gimme Shelter, he wrote, “the Brits went into hostile terrain, outnumbered, without helicopter support, relying instead upon timing, terrain, manoeuvrability, firepower and sheer audacity . . . The enemy was at times on both sides of us, firing from many positions, on the ground and on rooftops”. There were no British casualties.

Lieutenant Colonel Justin Maciejewski, commander of the battle group, “intended to show the enemy that even in their strongest bastion, outnumbered British forces could strike into their heart and inflict heavy losses”, Yon wrote.

They struck again yesterday, killing eight gunmen who had apparently been laying land-mines in an area of Basra where four British soldiers and their civilian translator were killed by a roadside device earlier this month. “These militiamen were intent upon launching the same type of attack in the same area,” said a military spokesman.

Last week’s bombings further north in Baghdad shattered confidence in the US-led troop surge. Insurgents killed an MP and injured two dozen other people in the cafeteria of the Iraqi parliament and destroyed the al-Sarafiya bridge linking the Sunni west to the Shi’ite east of the city.

Mohammed al-Dayni, a Sunni MP, said the suicide attack on parliament showed the security plan was a “total flop”. He said: “It was a very clear message telling us that we can kill you wherever you are. This means that not an inch of Iraqi territory is safe.”

Dayni had just left the cafeteria when the blast occurred. “There was smoke, fire, dust and debris everywhere,” he said. “Mohammed Awad [the mortally wounded MP] was still alive, but he was at his last breath.”

Dayni said he saw two legs on the floor. “It was clear nobody had lost their limbs so they must have belonged to the suicide bomber. How did this man enter when the Americans have tight control of security with sniffer dogs and stringent searches?”

Muwaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq’s national security adviser, said: “We will be adopting heightened measures in the capital above and beyond those that already form part of the security plan. It will inconvenience people but they will accept it because they expect us to bring an end to the violence.”

More vehicles will be searched, car-free zones will be introduced and lorries will be banned from key bridges, Rubaie said. Within the Green Zone where many official buildings are located, “everybody will be subjected to 100% searches whether they are American or Iraqi generals, ministers or diplomats”.

Rubaie claimed investigators were tracking a “high-level network” and were close to making a large number of arrests. Iraqi officials said the parliament bomber was believed to be a bodyguard for a Sunni MP who was not among the casualties.

The number of civilian deaths in Baghdad dropped from 2,871 in the two months before the troop surge began to 1,586 in the two months since, according to figures compiled by the Associated Press news agency.

During the same period deaths among American soldiers rose by 21% in Baghdad, sparking a debate about whether the security crackdown is bringing insurgents out into the open where they can be crushed as in Operation Arezzo, but at the risk of greater coalition casualties.

Outside the capital, civilian deaths have risen by 50%. “Violence is up in the Baghdad belts because US and Iraqi forces have been attacking Al-Qaeda bases in those areas that have been funnelling weapons and fighters into Baghdad,” said Frederick Kagan, the military historian and leading proponent of the surge.

Former colonel Andrew Bacevich, professor of international relations at Boston University, said: “Just as it is absurd to point to the drop in casualties in Baghdad and say it’s a sign of progress, it is equally incorrect to use the bombing of parliament to show that the surge has failed.”

With several brigades still to arrive in Baghdad, General David Petraeus, US commander in Iraq, has said the success of the surge can be assessed only once all the troops are in place.

Many dead in blast at holy site

A huge explosion ripped through a crowded bus station in the city of Karbala yesterday, killing at least 65 people and wounding 168. More than 16 children were among the dead, writes Sara Hashash.

The suicide car bomb exploded 200 yards from one of the holiest Shi’ite sites. Protesters angered by the attack pelted the governor’s offices with stones.

In Baghdad at least 10 people were killed in a suicide attack on a bridge over the Tigris. Eleven people were admitted to hospital after the water supply in Sadr city was poisoned with chlorine.

In Kirkuk a car bomb killed four militants when it exploded prematurely.

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