The tribal unrest in Mesopotamia has spread from the Euphrates
valley to the district between Baghdad and the Persian hills. A small outpost at Shahroban, held by three British officers and two serjeants with some Arab troops, was destroyed last week after a gallant defence for three days. The ebels, estimated to number four thousand, failed to capture the important railway bridge at Bakuba. Further north, towards Persia and on the Mosul road, a few roving bands have given trouble. The main seat of disturbance is still on the edge of the desert south-west of Baghdad, between Hillah, close to the site of Babylon, and Nasiriyeh, where the Shammar Arabs, whom the Turks could never tame, have joined in the fray. General Haldane has reopened the Hillah branch railway, under the protection of blockhouses. South of Mirth, a covering party of Sikhs, supported by artillery, beat off a large force of tribesmen with heavy loss. The Empire sustained a grievous loss by the treacherous murder, near Feluja, of Colonel Leachman, whose influence over the desert Arabs was unrivalled. At Shahroban the wife of one of the officers who fell fighting was captured by the rebels. The 'War Office now announces that the British women and children at certain remote outposts have been withdrawn. It is difficult to understand why they were allowed to go to such places when the country was far from being pacified.
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