Police in the oil region around Basra have found weapons that were meant to be used to attack foreign companies.

巴士拉周围油田地区的警力找到了许多预谋袭击外国公司的武器。

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And the Mehdi Army and Badr Brigades -- the principal combatants in the Basra region -- are hardly the only militias at arms in Iraq.

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The Iraqi cabinet approved a preliminary agreement that will create a joint venture between the state-run South Oil Company and Royal Dutch Shell to develop natural-gas resources in the Basra region.

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Some scholars have called the region located in and around Basra, Thiqar and Maysan provinces the biblical Garden of Eden.

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