Hmmm, WTF, I thought the war was over?!
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Six British Troops Killed in String of Iraq Attacks
Tue Jun 24, 3:16 PM ET Add Top Stories - Reuters to My Yahoo!
By Nadim Ladki
BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - Six British troops were killed and eight wounded in Iraq (news - web sites) in the worst single death toll sustained by U.S. and British forces since March 23, three days after they went to war to topple Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).
U.S. and British forces came under a string of attacks on the toughest day of their battle to eliminate resistance by what they brand as die-hard Saddam loyalists since the Iraqi leader fell on April 9.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites)'s office said the British casualties occurred in two separate incidents near the city of Amarah, some 120 miles north of Iraq's British-controlled second city, Basra.
"We very much regret to confirm that in one incident six British personnel have been killed," a spokesman told reporters. He could give no further details, but a defense source said it was believed the troops died from hostile fire.
In the second incident eight troops were wounded, three of them seriously, when a British helicopter came under attack as it went to the aid of a stricken military patrol.
The British deaths were the latest in a spate of postwar blows to Blair, who defied public opinion at home to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with President Bush (news - web sites) and go to war despite widespread international opposition.
In the previous bloodiest incident, the Pentagon (news - web sites) identified seven U.S. Marines as killed in a firefight near the southern city of Nassiriya on March 23.
Although U.S. forces have come under now daily attacks in Baghdad and central Iraq, British forces in control of Basra and other southern areas had not previously encountered any major violence since Saddam's fall.
In the latest attack on U.S. forces, assailants launched gun and grenade raids on U.S. troops in the volatile town of Falluja, 45 miles west of Baghdad, hitting a power supply facility, witnesses said.
One Iraqi man was killed when the soldiers returned fire, they said. It was not clear if he was one of the attackers. There were no reports of U.S. casualties.
NOW DAILY ATTACKS ON U.S. FORCES
Residents in Ramadi, some 60 miles west of Baghdad, said four Iraqi civilians were killed and three were wounded in cross-fire. Bullet marks were clear on walls on buildings near the site of the attack. Several cars were damaged.
A resident said the Americans suffered casualties in the attack, but there was no confirmation of this.
A total of 19 U.S. soldiers have been killed by enemy fire in Iraq since Bush declared major combat over on May 1.
Attacks on U.S. troops were sporadic and ill-executed in the early aftermath of Saddam's fall, but this month they increased significantly and became more sophisticated and deadlier. Now no day goes by without an attack on U.S. forces in central Iraq.
Many Iraqis, pleased to see the end of Saddam, had warned that attacks against occupation forces would pick up if the U.S.-led administration ruling the country did not move quickly to hand power back to Iraqis and restore the infrastructure.
The inability of London and Washington to find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, their main reason for the war, has severely damaged Blair's credibility and dented his popularity.
A Guardian/ICM poll Tuesday, conducted before the troop deaths, showed Blair's ruling Labor Party had plunged to its lowest lead over the opposition Conservatives in 2-1/2 years.
After the toppling of Saddam with only a small number of British casualties, Britons had rallied behind Blair.
But in past weeks, Blair has grappled with allegations he "sexed up" evidence of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction to justify the conflict and Tuesday his government apologized for plagiarizing a student thesis to produce an arms dossier.
The deaths of British troops could give new impetus to Blair's critics, who say the conflict was badly handled and that Britain and the United States have left chaos in the country.
Syria, which has had often tense relations with Washington over Iraq and U.S. charges that it supports terrorism, remained silent Tuesday on a U.S. special forces raid against a convoy near its border in the hunt for Saddam and top aides.
U.S. officials said Monday a number of Syrian border guards were wounded last week in an attack on a convoy of suspected high-profile members of Saddam's toppled government, and that three Syrians were still being treated by U.S. forces.
The officials said there was no indication Saddam or his sons Qusay and Uday -- who head Washington's most wanted list after the Iraq war -- were killed in the attack. |
