COPENHAGEN - Danish soldiers on patrol in southern Iraq came under attack but escaped unharmed, the Danish military headquarters said on Monday. Iraqis shot at the patrol on Sunday as the Danish soldiers gave first aid to a group of children injured in a traffic accident south of Al Qurnah, it said. “They were shot at as they tried to help the children,” Colonel Henrik Sommer told AFP.The soldiers shot back, withdrew from the area and took several of the children to hospital, he said.
Around 530 Danish soldiers are stationed in Iraq as part of a multinational force there, operating under British command in Basra, 550 kilometres (340 miles) south of Baghdad. However, Sommer said that “for the time-being” the government did not believe the attack was be linked to the Mohammed caricatures.
Danish Defense Minister Soeren Gade told Danish television DR1 that Denmark had increased security around its troops in Iraq.