As 15 sailors and marines were celebrating their release by the Iranian government, the bloody reality of the conflict in which they were embroiled struck British soldiers on Thursday on the streets of southern Iraq.
Four soldiers on patrol in a Warrior armoured vehicle in Basra were killed, and another seriously injured, by a powerful roadside bomb in one of the worst attacks on British forces since the invasion of Iraq four years ago.
On Thursday night the Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed that two men and two women had died in the attack, along with a Kuwaiti civilian interpreter. ”The soldiers were from the Intelligence Corps, the 2nd Battalion the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, and two from the Royal Army Medical Corps. Next of kin have been informed and have requested a 24-hour period before further details are released,” an MoD statement said. The two female soldiers are understood to be from the Intelligence Corps and the Medical Corps.
They were killed after coming under fire from what army spokespersons called Shia ”rogue militia” suspected of having links with Iran.
Photographs showed Iraqis appearing to celebrate the soldiers’ deaths. A man held up a British military camouflage helmet while a young child grasped a piece of charred metal that was said to have come from the wreckage of the Warrior. Other men waved and smiled.
Speaking outside Number 10 Downing Street as the freed sailors and marines were touching down in the United Kingdom, British Prime Minister Tony Blair acknowledged that even as Britain rejoiced, the ”sober and ugly reality” of the conflict had returned. Six British soldiers have now died in Basra since Sunday.
Using a noticeably harder tone than he had been able to adopt about Iran during the 13-day crisis, he said: ”Now it is far too early to say the particular terrorist act that killed our forces was an act committed by terrorists who were backed by any elements of the Iranian regime, so I make no allegation in respect of that particular incident.
”But the general picture, as I said before, is that there are elements, at least, of the Iranian regime that are backing, financing, arming, supporting terrorism in Iraq and I repeat that our forces are there specifically at the request of the Iraqi government and with the full authority of the United Nations”.
Army sources in Basra said it was unlikely they would be able to identify the origin or the type of roadside bomb which wrecked the Warrior. ”Intelligence suggests [weapons] are coming from Iran but there is very little hard evidence,” a senior army source said.
The patrol came under attack in the early hours of Thursday morning in the Hayaniyah district west of Basra. In an intelligence-led operation of the kind which have borne fruit in recent raids, the soldiers were looking for a weapons cache when they were attacked by small arms fire.
The patrol was returning to base after the shoot-out when it was attacked again by rifle fire and rocket-propelled grenades, Captain Katie Brown, army spokesperson in Basra said. ”The soldiers repelled the attack and were about 4km away on their way back to base when their patrol was hit by a roadside bomb,” she said.
The explosion left a large crater in the road. A witness told Reuters: ”We heard two explosions that shook the house. I went out and saw one armoured vehicle that was completely destroyed and another with less damage. I saw some soldiers being taken away, but I don’t know how many.”
An army spokesperson denied reports that the British patrol had earlier attacked an Iraqi police checkpoint. He said the police were briefly questioned and were asked to remove their sidearms. Brown said the patrol was a routine operation to look for ”weaponry and anyone involved in anti-Iraqi force activity”. She said there were no weapons finds and no one was detained.
The army’s version was supported by Colonel Abed al-Raehi, a senior officer at Basra’s police headquarters: ”We have no information that the British attacked one of our checkpoints. It didn’t happen.”
He said that since British troops had pulled out of central Basra two weeks ago as a prelude to the phased withdrawal of a quarter of its 7 000-strong force, security in the strategic oil centre had ”not been great but the city was generally stable”.
The commander of British forces said last month that the scale of the attacks on British troops in Basra was a barrier to the public’s confidence that Iraqi forces were capable of securing the city.
Raehi said there had been a number of gun battles between various groups fighting for influence over Basra’s provincial council. But he denied there was a security vacuum in the city. ”It is better than Baghdad. The violence here is targeted, organised. Thank God, you don’t get the random violence and the killing of civilians that you see … in Baghdad.”
British military sources in Basra declined to speculate over the identity of Thursday’s attackers, or whether the roadside bomb and earlier shoot-out were carried out by the same group.
Since the crisis over the seized British sailors erupted, British and Iraqi officials have been watching for signs that armed groups in the Basra region were stepping up attacks against British targets.
”We saw no noticeable up-tick in attacks during that period that we could definitively link to the situation with Iran,” said a senior diplomatic source in Baghdad. Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mehdi militia is especially active in the Basra area.
But the six British deaths this week suggest the situation is deteriorating. On Sunday, Kingsman Danny John Wilson (28) of the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, died. The following day Rifleman Aaron Lincoln (18) of the 2nd Battalion, The Rifles, was shot. Both were killed by small arms fire in what army sources called a change of tactic by insurgents. The death toll of British service personnel in Iraq since hostilities began now stands at 140; of those 109 died in action.
13 days of violence
While global attention has focused on Iran for almost two weeks, the death toll in Iraq has continued to rise
March 23 US soldier killed in Anbar. Another killed by a roadside bomb south of Baghdad.
March 25 Four US soldiers killed by a bomb in Diyala province. Roadside bomb kills another soldier in Baghdad
March 27 Massive truck bomb attack in the Iraqi town of Tal Afar kills 152. US soldier killed in Baghdad’s Green Zone
March 28 Off-duty Shia policemen kill at least 45 men with shots to the head.
March 29 Three simultaneous attacks in Shia town of Khalis kill 53 people. Further 62 killed by suicide bomber in a market in northern Baghdad. US soldier killed by roadside bomb.
April 1 British soldier killed and another injured while on patrol in Basra. Six US soldiers killed in roadside bombings southwest of Baghdad
April 2 British soldier dies after being fired on in Basra. Two US soldiers and a marine killed in Anbar. Another US soldier killed by truck bomb in Kirkuk.
April 3 US soldier killed by small arms fire on southern outskirts of Baghdad.
April 5 Four British soldiers killed in roadside bomb blast in Basra – Guardian Unlimited Â