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| Iraq |
| Two UK soldiers missing in Iraq (and other Brit news in short) |
| 2003-03-24 |
| Two British soldiers are missing in Iraq, the Ministry of Defence has said. Their vehicles were attacked in the south of the country on Sunday and efforts are being made to find the men. Elsewhere British troops are coming under sniper and small arms fire as they try to secure footholds in southern Iraq. There has been no details about which unit the missing soldiers are from or where they may be. An MoD spokesman said they were being deliberately vague about the suspected location of the men for safety and operational reasons. The soldiers are the first British service personnel to go missing in action. An MoD spokesman later said the soldiers' next of kin had been informed of the situation. British troops have been establishing footholds on the outskirts of Basra in the south of Iraq. But resistance from Iraqi forces has continued - including 3 Para, of the 16th Air Assault coming under fire in the Rumeila oil fields, according to the BBC's Hilary Andersson. BBC correspondent Tim Franks, reporting from the Iraqi border, said all British units were reporting "niggling, sniping attacks". "These are coming from what are characterised as regime zealots and militia using guns and rocket-propelled grenades." Group Captain Al Lockwood, the British forces spokesman in the Gulf, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme there remained "minor pockets of resistance", but UK troops were not being hampered by them. He said: "We're encountering them, if necessary we're going round them. They're not impeding our advance at all, and as necessary we will go back and deal with them. We're making progress, we're on our timeline." UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said the war on Iraq was going to plan "despite the tragedies that have occurred". But speaking on British Forces Broadcasting - which broadcasts to troops - he warned of tough times ahead. Mr Blair also joined the condemnation of Iraq's display of captured US soldiers on television. He said it helped to demonstrate what sort of man Saddam Hussein was, insisting: "Parading people in that way is contrary to the Geneva Convention." Tanks from the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards saw their first action on Sunday, 24 hours after crossing the border from Kuwait on Friday and heading north to join the rest of the Desert Rats surrounding Basra. They were involved in a series of battles with Iraqi resistance on the outskirts of the city. Their Challenger 2 tanks destroyed five Russian built T55 tanks close to Basra International Airport. Nearer to the Iraq-Kuwait border, a three-day scouting trip by men from the 59 and 131 Independent Commando Squadrons, Royal Engineers, led to the erection of a strategic bridge outside the port town of Umm Qasr. The soldiers spent two nights sleeping in their nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) suits to keep warm. The 15th US Marine Expeditionary Unit, known as 15th MEU, are to be replaced in Umm Qasr on Monday by 42 Commando of the Royal Marine Commandos. Coalition forces intend to get humanitarian aid on shore as quickly as possible via the two ports. It has also been confirmed that three British soldiers have been injured while fighting Iraqi forces on the nearby Al Faw oil peninsula. The troops who have been injured on the Al-Faw peninsula are believed to have suffered burns during an explosion in a building, but sources could not say how the explosion occurred. Footage of this was shown on TV via night vision cameras. Looked like phosphorous, two guys were slightly burned, one was pretty well aflame. |
| Posted by:Bulldog |
| #6 The SA80 rocks. But M16 still better :) |
| Posted by: RW 2003-03-24 18:25:59 |
| #5 Heh, they did look determined, didn't they?! |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2003-03-24 13:06:36 |
| #4 Bulldog - The clip of one firefight I saw reminded me why it's good to have the UK shoulder-to-shoulder with us. |
| Posted by: Matt 2003-03-24 10:45:40 |
| #3 Bulldog. I saw the video on that attack. Most intense firefight I've seen yet in this war. Looks like your boys are doing just fine, as we knew they would. We're proud of them. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-03-24 10:01:56 |
| #2 I continue to eagerly follow brit progress in southren Iraq. Basra is proving nastier than expected, but UK troops seem to be handling it well. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2003-03-24 08:57:29 |
| #1 Heh, they did look determined, didn't they?! |
| Posted by: Bulldog 3/24/2003 1:06:36 PM |