Army Nurse is Among the Victims of Latest Atrocity

Apr 06, 05:09 AM

Current Headlines: By Gerri Peev Political Correspondent

TWO female service personnel - a nurse and an intelligence officer - were killed in Iraq yesterday, taking to four the number of women to die in action in the country since the 2003 invasion.

The two were among four British soldiers killed when the Warrior vehicle in which they were travelling was blown up on the outskirts of Basra in the worst day for UK casualties for nearly half a year.

A medic from the Royal Army Medical Corps and a soldier from 2nd Battalion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment were also killed in the blast, along with a Kuwaiti interpreter.

A fifth soldier was seriously injured in the attack, which saw the group also come under gunfire after the bomb went off.

Lieutenant-Colonel Kevin Stratford-Wright, speaking on behalf of British forces in Basra, described how the violent events unfolded yesterday.

He said: "The unit was involved in an operation elsewhere. As they were on their way back from the operation, [the vehicle] was targeted by a roadside bomb in conjunction with small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades."

The attack unfolded at around 2am local time in the Habbaniyah district west of Basra.

After the blast, insurgents attacked the Warrior with small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades, which officials said had caused more casualties, but it is understood it was the roadside bomb that killed the soldiers and the interpreter.

Uncertainty surrounded exactly what the troops had been doing before the attack.

Captain Katie Brown, a British military spokeswoman in Basra, added that they had been on a routine patrol to look for weapons and "anti-Iraqi force activity", but had made no finds and picked up no detainees.

However, Iraqi police officials claimed that the patrol had earlier detained a lieutenant in the Interior Ministry's major crimes unit, and were returning to their base when they were ambushed.

The attacks followed a relatively quiet period in Baghdad, where US and Iraqi forces have deployed thousands more troops to enforce a security crackdown. A night-time curfew had even been relaxed this week by an Iraqi government eager to normalise the security arrangements.

The UK will begin withdrawing a quarter of its 7,000 troops, who are stationed mainly in the Basra area, in coming months so Iraqi security forces can eventually take full control of Basra province.

The killings, which brought the British death toll in Iraq this week to six, threw the spotlight back onto the role of women in front-line action in the Middle East following the release of Leading Seaman Faye Turney, who was the most high profile of the 15 British personnel held in Iran.

Yesterday's attack takes the number of servicewomen to die in action in Iraq since the 2003 invasion to four, with a fifth whose death is thought to be non-combat related.

Last night Prime Minister Tony Blair contrasted the rejoicing of Ldg Smn Turney and her colleagues with the "sober and ugly reality" of the deaths of the four service personnel in Iraq.

As the sailors and marines freed after 13 days' captivity touched down at Heathrow, Mr Blair eschewed the conciliatory tone adopted in recent days to secure their release to criticise Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government.

Mr Blair stressed it was essential to remain "steadfast" in the face of Tehran's nuclear programme and continuing support for terrorism in Iraq.

And while he acknowledged that it was premature to link Iran to yesterday's attack in Basra, he added: "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."

His words echo the accusations by British officials and commanders who have previously accused Iran and its Revolutionary Guards of providing sophisticated "shaped" projectiles used by Iraqi insurgents in a series of deadly roadside bomb attacks.

One commander said locals were being offered dollars 500 by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard to attack British troops.

Mr Blair said: "Just as we rejoice at the return of our 15 service personnel so today we are also grieving and mourning for the loss of our soldiers in Basra, who were killed as the result of a terrorist act."

Dr Rosemary Hollis, the head of the Middle East department at the Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House, said the situation in Basra was one of "diminishing returns" for British forces.

"There is Shia factional fighting, including the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq backed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. That puts British forces in the middle of an internal struggle where upholding law and order becomes irrelevant or impossible," she said.

She added British forces had become a target around which Iraqis could gather. "When they go, one way or another the Iraqis will accuse them of betrayal or leaving before the job is done and beg them to stay. They can't win or lose."

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