I am sorry for the people in Basra and want you to know that the pupils at Wyndcliffe Primary wish to support you.

Emirates' office in Basra offers five customer service desks enabling customers to book their flights as well as offering assistance with visa application, Skywards enrolment and shortly Emirates Holidays bookings.

"Our Basra flights have been scheduled in such a way that they provide very good two-way connectivity to all the major GCC points such as Abu Dhabi, Doha, Dubai, Kuwait and Muscat in addition to key destinations in Europe, North Africa and Asia from 40 minutes to 3 hours of connecting time.

He was taken to the multinational Basra Palace base, where he later died from his injuries.

Located in the Southern Iraq, Basra is the second largest city in Iraq after the Capital Baghdad.

"It is ironic that the Baath party and Al Maliki's Dawa Party as well as the Islamic Supreme Council, worked together to obstruct the vote counting," Zahra Al Saadoun, a political researcher in Basra told Gulf News.

Saddam may have stayed at Basra Palace only a handful of times because of anti-Sunni sentiment in the south, but his indelible mark lasts.

Troops raided a shanty town on the outskirts of Basra, finding six mortars, 37 rocketpropelled grenades and a large anti-tank weapon.

The airport in Basra still maintains tight security after the British forces withdrew and the road to the airport is scattered with checkpoints manned by the Iraqi security forces.

Rocket propelled grenades, artillery, mortars and machine guns mounted from the back of pick-up trucks were all fired at Britain's 7th Armoured Brigade - the Desert Rats - as its tanks closed in on Basra, Iraq's second-largest city.

Al-Bijari said in a statement to the (NINA): "The decision that has been taken by the Basra Provincial Council yesterday to activate its decision to turn Basra into a province is a constitutional decision and a public demand, which will come with positive results and will benefit the province and its people after keeping away from routine and abhorrent centralization.

Al Waili also explained that an autonomous Basra would be a huge economic benefit to its citizens, as they would obtain proceeds from exports of its oil.

She said in a statement to the National Iraqi News Agency (NINA) on Friday, "despite the demands of the Basra MPs to the province of the Ministries of Oil and Transport as most departments of these Ministries are located in Basra, as well as the existence of competencies and professional expertise and management working in these Ministries, but the Prime Minister's cabin did not give Basra its right.

BASRA / Aswat al-Iraq: Southern Iraq's Basra police have arrested 23 wanted persons, charged with involvement in terror acts and confiscated a quantity of light weapons on Thursday, Basra Police Media office director reported.

The Iraqi government says it is fighting the Shiite militia known as the Mahdi Army in Basra. But Moqtada Al Sadr, the maverick mullah who founded the militia and is supposed to be its leader, says he has ordered his men to lay down their arms and go home.