Badgers Attack Iraq

Iraq is fertile ground for conspiracy theories and paranoia. American soldiers use night vision googles to see through women's clothes, America invaded Iraq to steal its oil, and Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction. You know, crazy stuff.

But here's one of the best. The BBC is reporting that inhabitants of southern Iraq accuse the British army of releasing "man-eating, bear-like beasts" into the area in order to sow chaos among the populace.

The creatures are in fact honey badgers, who have possibly moved into Basra as the marshlands of southern Iraq have refilled with water. "We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area," said a British military spokesman.

Some are not convinced. Sattar Jabbar, a 50 year-old farmer, claimed he saw one of the beasts eat a cow. "It tore the cow up piece by piece," he said. "I tried to shoot it with my gun but it ran away."

--Andrew Lee Butters/Beirut