Words military spokespeople never thought they'd say:

"We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area."

That's as may be, but try telling that to the Iraqi locals around Basra, where the British military are of course based. They have a different story to tell. Mike Drummond, editor of US paper The Charlotte Observer on attachment in Iraq, explains more:

White “hog badgers” [are] attacking people in Basra. Badgers, of all things. And white ones, no less.

The story comes gratis from the Al-Mashriq newspaper, one of the many dailies our staff reviews at morning meetings. The article even used some jpeg images culled from the Internet. One of the images, I’m fairly certain, isn’t even of a badger. I’m also fairly certain badgers don’t live in Iraq.

Supposedly, the creatures have something to do with a British military plot, Al-Mashriq said, citing scared locals.

Later, [Mike's associate] Hussein and I have a chat [and] the subject, naturally, turns to badgers in Basra.

Hussein talked with one of his friends there. Didn’t know anything about badgers, white ones or otherwise. But he did hear about the young man who was bitten by a dog. Later, the young man flew into a mad rage and, before dying, bit his father. The older man is now in the hospital. You know, that sounds like rabies to me.

So now authorities in Basra have declared a sort of jihad on feral dogs in the city. Given how itchy the trigger fingers are in this country, you don’t want to be a dog, or anything on four legs, wandering the streets of Basra. Those badgers better lay low.

More: Mike Drummond's Baghdad Diary

Well, for more of the British response - plus some quotes from locals who insist the British killer badgers are very real - click here.