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This crowd has gathered outside the Rumalia oil field near Basra in Iraq. They're after
a British security guard who they claimed had tried to remove flags and pamphlets commemorating
Imam Hussain who's a venerated figure in Shia Islam. The incident happened yesterday in
the run up to annual rituals marking Imam's death. A member of the provincial council
of Basra accused the security guard, who works for G4S, of taking down a flag for Imam Hussain
and a picture of Imam Ali. Ali Shaddad said that this is what caused the group to beat
the worker so severely.
There have been conflicting reports on what happened to the security guard. The video
description on the site it was originally posted on claimed he'd been killed. The Basra
council says he's been taken to the hospital and is yet to be discharged but had serious
injuries. But then we've spoken to G4S who confirm that the worker was beaten badly but
was treated by a paramedic, not taken to hospital. They told us he was shaken up and suffered
several cuts to his head, a broken nose, and a couple of broken fingers. The Iraqi Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki has called for restraint from locals but has also called for the security
worker to be deported. The company themselves told us that he is being flown out of Iraq.