Football: the latest weapon
It was football, but most definitely not as we know it. On the sidelines one group of spectators stood cheering with assault rifles cocked and ready. Nearby, snipers kept watch while all around were the vehicles and paraphernalia of war.
On the pitch a hastily put together team of Royal Marines lined up against the local first XI, whose captain turned out in immaculate Arsenal strip.
For the men of Juliet Company, 42 Commando, the switch from battlefield to playing field came as a surreal episode in the harsh war zone of southern Iraq. But despite the cheers and sense of fun, this was no game. Rather it was a serious move in what is being called the wider war, the effort to secure a lasting peace. On the field, the Marines lost 9-3. In the wider conflict they scored a magnificent victory.
The football at Khor Az Zubahir in Basra province marks a significant waypoint in the effort to liberate Iraq. It was only possible because the Royal Marines - and in this town this means Juliet Company - have thrown themselves into the struggle to return the destitute populations of this neglected hinterland to some kind of normality.
Even before the war, this town of 50,000 was in dire straits. Water and power were in short supply. Most people lived in poverty. Now, they need water desperately and the Marines are helping to make sure they get it. The aid agencies consider this part of Iraq too dangerous for operations at present, but Unicef has just launched a major water delivery programme, made possible by the courage of a New Zealander who was running a farm across the Kuwait border when the war began. Glenn Kerrigan, a 46-year-old expert in hi-tech and organic farming, volunteered to lead water convoys into the war zone.
His deliveries are this town's lifeline. At dawn today he led five tankers, each carrying 10,000 gallons, to strategic spots near homes and the hospital. Although it was barely light, hundreds of men, women and children clamoured around the trucks. A small detachment of Marines supervised the delivery of water into old tins and buckets.
"There is some food, perhaps enough for a month," Abdul Salim, a local community leader said. "But we must have water to cook it with. The situation is very bad."
Salim refereed the football match and was one of the sponsors of the game. "I watched Liverpool at home in 1982," he said, not without pride. "We challenged the British because we wanted to show that we can have normal relations with them. There is a lot that might keep us apart, but football is something we share."
For their part, the Marines seized the chance. The officer commanding Juliet Company, Major Kevin Oliver, 35, said: "When we first arrived here there was some contact with armed groups. A rocket-propelled grenade was fired at us and a patrol came under fire. But we responded firmly. We rounded up people identified as Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party activists. We also closed down the party headquarters where we found a considerable amount of weapons.
"We want to show that we are here as liberators, not conquerors. The football match was a marvellous confidence-building measure. Now we patrol in berets, rather than helmets, we never fly our flag and we try to look as unwarlike as possible."
Glenn Kerrigan plans to bring in more Unicef tankers but as uncertainty over the security situation persists it may be some time before a bigger aid operation is possible. Meanwhile the Marines keep the lifeline open and, it must be said, discreetly train for what is sure to be a very interesting return match.
