Investigation underway into soldier deaths
A Ministry of Defence investigation is underway into how six British soldiers were killed in ambushes in the south of Iraq yesterday.
Local residents claim that civilians shot the men, furious at ‘intrusive’ military weapons searches in the region.
Two separate attacks occurred in the south of the country yesterday, which is under the control of British forces.
The incidents left six dead and eight injured and marked the first attacks on UK soldiers since the end of the Iraq war two months ago.
The six Royal Military Police were members of the 156 Provost Company, RMP, based in Colchester, Essex and were based in the southern Iraqi town of al-Majar-al-Kabir, 120 miles north of Basra, training civilian police officers.
Speaking in the Commons this afternoon, the Prime Minister paid tribute to the servicemen.
Tony Blair said that the men were ‘doing an extraordinary and heroic job’, adding: ‘The whole country and their families can be immensely proud of them.’
British forces are now hunting for the killers of the six military police. Their bodies were discovered at a police station in a village near Amara about 100 miles north of Basra.
Defence minister Adam Ingram stated that the incidents might mark a return to helmets and flak jackets for soldiers patrolling the streets and more defensive tactics.
However, he played down suggestions that Iraqis were becoming increasingly resentful of the occupying forces and attacks on British troops could increase.
Captain Dennis Abbott, a military spokesman in Basra, insisted: ‘This was an isolated incident and in no way reflects the general security situation across the UK area of operations.’
Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon told the Commons last night that the bodies of the six Royal Military Police had been recovered from Al Majar al Kabir.
The injured British servicemen had been taken to a field hospital, he said, and two were later transferred to Kuwait for specialist treatment.
He also announced that an urgent review of troop numbers in Iraq is underway and thousands more armed forces personnel could be sent out the Gulf.
The second attack was on the 1st Battalion the Parachute Regiment, which came under attack patrolling the town. They were fired at with machine guns, grenades and rifles by ‘a large number of Iraqi gunmen.’
The troops radioed for help and Scimitar armoured vehicles and a Chinook helicopter arrived to assist, but also came under fire.
Seven men in the helicopter and one man on the ground were injured in the fighting.
According to Pentagon reports there have been 25 attacks by Iraqis on US forces in under 24-hours.
Altogether 43 Britons have been killed since the start of the Iraq conflict. 19 US military personnel have been killed in attacks by Iraqis since the war was declared over.
