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| Iraq |
| UK considers Iraq reinforcements |
| 2003-06-25 |
| Thousands of extra British troops could be sent to Iraq in the wake of the killing of six members of the Royal Military Police, UK Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon has said. An urgent review of troop numbers, tactics and equipment is under way after the deaths in southern Iraq on Tuesday. British forces are hunting for the killers of the soldiers, whose bodies were found at a police station - where they had been training local officers - in a village near Amara about 100 miles north of Basra. In a separate attack in the same area, seven British soldiers were injured when their helicopter came under fire. They had been trying to reach two vehicles which had been targeted by Iraqi gunmen, leaving another British soldier injured. Two of the casualties were seriously injured. News agencies have reported local police saying townspeople angry over civilian deaths chased down and killed the military police officers. Mr Hoon told BBC Radio 4's Today programme there were "many thousands" of troops which could be sent to Iraq if that deemed necessary by the new review. "My absolute priority is the safety and security of British forces," he said. "Already an urgent review is under way to ensure their safety, looking at the way they have been operating in our area of operations and ensuring that whatever action is necessary is taken to protect them. "Obviously depending on the results of that review we have more troops should that be required." Mr Hoon stressed that the 19,000 troops used as cover for the firefighters' strikes were no longer needed for that role back in the UK. But he refused to put a figure on how many reinforcements could be deployed. The review is likely to reassess the British decision not to wear helmets or flak jackets and to maintain high-profile patrols in an effort to win friends in the local communities and keep order. The British military will be keen to establish whether Tuesday's attacks were co-ordinated and which groups were behind them. Speculation has centred around either Baath party loyalists or other guerillas opposed to the coalition occupation. The area is dominated by Shia Muslims, a group which is extremely hostile to the old regime, but has seen demonstrations protesting against the British forces. Both incidents happened at the edge of the British area of operations within the country. They mark the heaviest losses to enemy action suffered in a single day by US-led coalition forces since the war in Iraq was declared largely over on 1 May, after the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime. It is also the heaviest loss of British life in a single hostile incident since UK forces entered Iraq at the start of the war in late March. About 20 US troops have been killed in attacks in the capital Baghdad and surrounding cities and towns since President George Bush declared that large-scale combat operations had ended. By contrast, British troops operating in and around the second city of Basra had until now seen no serious post-war attacks. On Tuesday, Mr Hoon told the House of Commons that the circumstances of the military police officers' deaths were being investigated. But initial indications were that they were involved in an incident at the local police station. BBC radio this morning was reporting the British troops had earlier killed two civilians with plastic bullets. Mr Hoon said that a few hours earlier, two vehicles carrying troops from the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment came under attack from a large number of Iraqi gunmen while on patrol in Majar al-Kabir. The Iraqis were armed with heavy machine-guns, rocket-propelled grenades and rifles, he told MPs. The paratroopers returned fire and called for assistance, said Mr Hoon, and a troop of Scimitar light tanks, a Chinook helicopter and extra troops were sent to the scene - and also came under fire. The defence secretary confirmed that eight British servicemen were injured - one on the ground and seven in the helicopter - and were taken to a field hospital. Two were subsequently transferred to a US field hospital in Kuwait for "specialist treatment for very serious injuries", he added. |
| Posted by:Bulldog |