Steve Vincent Murdered
By streiff Posted in User Blogs — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Author and freelance writer Steve Vincent was murdered in Basra. According to Basra police, Vincent and his translator were kidnapped Tuesday night and his body and the critically wounded interpreter were discovered in the early hours of Wednesday.
Vincent was the proprietor of one of my favorite websites In The Red Zone.
Read on.
In the lawless environs of most Iraqi cities were foreigners and locals of prominence are perpetual assassination targets of jihadis and insurgents as well as representing a profit center for various criminal enterprises there is no shortage of suspects. However, the circumstances lead one to suspect the membership of one of the various paleo-islamist groups that have been struggling to exert influence in the rather wide open port city because of an op-ed that appeared in the NYT that was very critical of the islamists and the lack of will on the part of the British Army and administration to restrain them. An op-ed that may have presaged his death:
He told me that there is even a sort of "death car": a white Toyota Mark II that glides through the city streets, carrying off-duty police officers in the pay of extremist religious groups to their next assignment.