April 08, 2007	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 19, 1428

LONDON: As 15 sailors and marines were celebrating their release by the Iranian government, the bloody reality of the conflict in which they were embroiled struck British soldiers on Thursday on the streets of southern Iraq.

Four soldiers on patrol in a Warrior armoured vehicle in Basra were killed, and another seriously injured, by a powerful roadside bomb in one of the worst attacks on British forces since the invasion of Iraq four years ago.

On Thursday night the Ministry of Defence confirmed that two men and two women had died in the attack, along with a Kuwaiti civilian interpreter. “The soldiers were from the Intelligence Corps, the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps, the Royal Army Medical Corps and 2nd Battalion The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment. Next of kin have been informed and have requested a 24-hour period before further details are released,” an MoD statement said. The two female soldiers were understood to be from the Intelligence Corps and Queen Alexandra’s.

They were killed after coming under fire from what army spokesmen called Shia “rogue militia” suspected of having links with Iran. Photographs showed Iraqis appearing to celebrate the soldiers’ deaths. A man held up a British military camouflage helmet while a young child grasped a piece of charred metal that was said to have come from the wreckage of the Warrior. Other men waved and smiled.

Speaking in Downing Street, London, as the freed sailors and marines were touching down in the UK, Tony Blair acknowledged that even as Britain rejoiced, the “sober and ugly reality” of the conflict had returned. Six British soldiers have now died in Basra since last Sunday.

Using a noticeably harder tone than he had been able to adopt about Iran during the 13-day crisis, he said: “Now it is far too early to say the particular terrorist act that killed our forces was an act committed by terrorists who were backed by any elements of the Iranian regime, so I make no allegation in respect of that particular incident.

“But 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 and I repeat that our forces are there specifically at the request of the Iraqi government and with the full authority of the United Nations”.

Army sources in Basra said it was unlikely they would be able to identify the origin or the type of roadside bomb which wrecked the Warrior. “Intelligence suggests (weapons) are coming from Iran but there is very little hard evidence,” a senior army source said.

The patrol came under attack in the early hours of Thursday morning in the Hayaniyah district west of Basra. In an intelligence-led operation of the kind which have borne fruit in recent raids, the soldiers were looking for a weapons cache when they were attacked by small arms fire.

The patrol was returning to base after the shootout when it was attacked again by rifle fire and rocket-propelled grenades, Captain Katie Brown, army spokeswoman in Basra said. “The soldiers repelled the attack and were about four-kilometre away on their way back to base when their patrol was hit by a roadside bomb,” she said.

The explosion left a large crater in the road. A witness told reporters: “We heard two explosions that shook the house. I went out and saw one armoured vehicle that was completely destroyed and another with less damage. I saw some soldiers being taken away, but I don’t know how many.”

An army spokesman denied reports that the British patrol had earlier attacked an Iraqi police checkpoint. He said the police were briefly questioned and were asked to remove their sidearms. Captain Brown said the patrol was a routine operation to look for “weaponry and anyone involved in anti-Iraqi force activity”. She said there were no weapons finds and no one was detained.

The army’s version was supported by Colonel Abed al-Raehi, a senior officer at Basra’s police headquarters: “We have no information that the British attacked one of our checkpoints. It didn’t happen.”

He said that since British troops had pulled out of central Basra two weeks ago as a prelude to the phased withdrawal of a quarter of its 7,000-strong force, security in the strategic oil centre had “not been great but the city was generally stable”.

The commander of British forces said last month that the scale of the attacks on British troops in Basra was a barrier to the public’s confidence that Iraqi forces were capable of securing the city.

Col Raehi said there had been a number of gun battles between various groups fighting for influence over Basra’s provincial council. But he denied there was a security vacuum in the city. “It is better than Baghdad. The violence here is targeted, organised. Thank God, you don’t get the random violence and the killing of civilians that you see ... in Baghdad.”

Since the crisis over the seized British sailors erupted, British and Iraqi officials have been watching for signs that armed groups in the Basra region were stepping up attacks against British targets.

The death toll of British service personnel in Iraq since hostilities began now stands at 140; of those 109 died in action. —Dawn/The Guardian News Service