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Brits died in fierce gunbattle
25/06/2003 12:55 - (SA)
Majar Al-Kabid - People furious at the deaths of civilians during a demonstration in this southern Iraqi town shot and killed six British military police, local police said on Wednesday.
Armed Iraqis killed two of the British soldiers at the scene of the demonstration - in front of the mayor's office - and then stormed a police station and killed four other British soldiers after a two-hour gunbattle, a pair of Iraqi policemen said.
The incident sparked a review of Britain's forces in southern Iraq, with defence secretary Geoff Hoon saying on Wednesday that Britain could send more soldiers to Iraq and require them to resume wearing helmets and body armour - like their American counterparts.
"My absolute priority is the safety and security of British forces. Already, an urgent review is under way to ensure their safety," Hoon told BBC radio.
"Depending on the results of that review... we have significant forces available should it be necessary. Many thousands, certainly."
A second incident on Tuesday also involved a fierce firefight between Iraqis and British troops in southern Iraq. That gunbattle wounded eight British soldiers, three of them seriously.
Local police allowed to patrol
The day's violence began when British soldiers fired rubber bullets - and then live ammunition - at demonstrators in Majar al-Kabir who railed against the presence of British forces in the city, said Abu Zahraa, a 30-year-old local vendor.
He said the British had formally agreed a day earlier to let local police patrol the city.
Accounts differed on where the four Iraqi civilians were killed.
Some said British soldiers killed all four during the demonstration; another account said two unarmed protesters were killed during the demonstration and two other civilians were killed in the gunbattle at the police station.
After the deaths at the scene of the demonstration, angry townspeople fetched weapons from their homes, converged on the police station and attacked British soldiers, said Abbas Faddhel, an Iraqi policeman in the town.
One British soldier was shot and killed at the station's doorway; the other three were slain after Iraqi gunmen stormed the station and cornered them in a single room, said Salam Mohammed, 30, a member of a municipal security force.
On Wednesday, the station bore the marks of a large gunbattle, with walls pocked full of bullet holes. Broken glass and dried bloodstains on the floor.
Iraqis fled during gunbattle
Captain Adam Marchant-Wincott said he could not confirm the Iraqi witness accounts.
He said, however, it was possible there had been an agreement between British forces and local police allowing the locals to take over security for the city.
Marchant-Wincott said he could not say whether the British forces had fired at demonstrators, but added that they would do so only if their lives were threatened.
Faddhel said that there were about two dozen Iraqi policemen at the station who fled through a window during the gunbattle. Two were wounded.
Faddhel said Iraqi police asked the British military police to flee with them, but the Egnlish insisted on staying.
In another attack, an oil pipeline was sabotaged on Tuesday near Hadithah, 240km northwest of Baghdad, an Iraq oil ministry official said.
Television reports Wednesday showed oil flooding into palm groves and the Euphrates River. The official, who asked not to be named, said saboteurs broke valves on the pipeline,causing the oil to spill.
25 attacks in 24 hours
It was the latest in a series of attacks against Iraq's power and oil infrastructure that has set back reconstruction efforts and increased blackouts in Baghdad.
The violence at the police station came in the mostly Shi'ite south, where resentment toward Saddam Hussein's government had been strong.
There had been no substantial attacks there against United States or British forces since the end of the war, and British troops in the city of Basra had felt so secure they had stopped wearing helmets and flak jackets. That policy is now under review.
The US military said on Tuesday there had been 25 attacks on coalition forces in a 24-hour period, including a firefight in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, that killed four Iraqis and wounded two American soldiers and two Iraqis.
em seriously, the government said.
Hoon said commanders were investigating whether the earlier deaths and the later ambush were connected.
General Richard Myers, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, extended condolences to the families of the dead soldiers.
"These losses are a reminder that Iraq remains a dangerous place," Myers said at the Pentagon. "But we must continue to stand firm."
It was the deadliest day for coalition forces since May 19, when six US marines died, most in a helicopter crash and a vehicle accident.
Saddam loyalists, Sunnis and ex-army soldiers are suspected in the attacks.
The Shi'ite-dominated south has been largely peaceful since the regime's fall.
Forty-two British troops have died - 19 in accidents - since the war began March 20. Britain has had no confirmed combat deaths since April 6. -AP
- SAPA
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