Amazing story from Basra, where British troops are now under constant assault from Shiite insurgents:

As I lay flat on the floor in my body armour, the infantry officer with whom I had been dining seconds earlier said he felt mightily sorry for the battalion that had just arrived to replace his unit.

From dawn till dusk we had been rocketed or mortared 15 times in Basra Palace — one of the two main British barracks in the southern Iraq capital. There was the usual fear and thrill of coming under enemy fire but that was just for 12 hours and by the evening the novelty was beginning to tire.

You don't read much about southern Iraq, the "peaceful" part.