Britain refuses to redeploy troops to Baghdad, Fallujah
* US planes pound Fallujah as troops battle militants
* 9 Iraqi cops killed in attack in Latifiyah
* US forces release 250 prisoners
LONDON: British troops in Iraq will not be redeployed to Baghdad or the restive Sunni Muslim stronghold of Fallujah after it was confirmed that the US has requested London to move its soldiers to the US-controlled sector, a Defence Ministry spokesman said on Sunday.
“If the troops do go they won’t be going to Baghdad or Fallujah,” a defence spokesman said. The spokesman said British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon would brief parliament on Monday over Washington’s request.
Meanwhile, US jets bombed Fallujah on Sunday and troops fought militants accused of shielding foreign fighters led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The battles subsided at dusk after US forces pulled back from forward positions, witnesses said. Four civilians, including a child, were killed in the violence, hospital officials said. A child and a woman were among 12 wounded.
In Baghdad, a mortar round hit an arms collection depot in Sadr City, killing two Iraqi National Guards and a civilian, shortly before interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi was due there.
Hospital staff said nine civilians were also wounded by the mortar round that hit the Sina’a Club football stadium or in shooting that erupted in the confusion afterwards.
In a separate incident, two US soldiers were killed and two were wounded when two US helicopters crashed in southwest Baghdad late on Saturday. The military said the cause of the crash was being investigated.
A roadside bomb wounded a British civilian and his Iraqi driver in Basra on Sunday, police said.
Also, Iraqi National Guards raided buildings in Kirkuk overnight and seized three people suspected of planning suicide attacks, along with caches of weapons and explosives, a guard officer, Maj Gen Anwar Amin, said.
Two mortars were fired at a hotel used by journalists and foreign contractors in Baghdad on Sunday. There were no initial reports of any injuries or damage.
Nine Iraqi policemen were killed when their minibus was ambushed in Latifiyah, 100 kilometres south of Baghdad, on Saturday, police said on Sunday.
The US-run prison system was freeing about 250 detainees in Iraq on Sunday, in the first releases during the Muslim holy month of Ramazan, a military spokesman said.
A US military convoy was targeted in a rocket attack on Sunday between Ramadi and Fallujah, police said. Militants attacked the convoy at 9:00am (0600 GMT), setting ablaze a military vehicle, said a police officer who patrols the road. The US military had no immediate confirmation of the attack in the western al-Anbar province.
Elsewhere in Anbar province, insurgents dynamited the building housing the local council in Rutba, a town near the Jordanian border, police said. There was no immediate word on casualties.
Meanwhile, an Internet statement purportedly from Zarqawi’s group said, “We announce that the Tawhid and Jihad Group, its prince and soldiers, have pledged allegiance to the sheikh of the mujahideen Osama Bin Laden.” agencies |
