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Col. Richard Iron told The Independent Sunday that the agreement between British commanders in Basra and a Shiite prison inmate resulted in Basra being left virtually lawless and at the mercy of criminal gangs.

"We have made some terrible mistakes in Iraq and it is only by talking about them that we will learn from them", said Iron, whom the newspaper called an expert on anti-insurgency. "Last autumn we made a mistake which was understandable but not excusable."

According to Iron, Ahmed al-Fartusi convinced the British he had connections to the insurgent Jaish al-Mahdi militia and could bring an end to a long-running outbreak of violence. The deal resulted in the release of 120 Mahdi prisoners and the British withdrawal from Basra.

The move, however, led to a surge in violence that required British, U.S. and Iraqi forces to move back in and resume control last spring.

Iron said not only were the Mahdi underestimated, but the British wrongly assumed the Mahdi would stand down once they left.

"But actually the Jaish al-Mahdi had been fighting us because we were the only obstacle to their total control", Iron said.

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