UNITED KINGDOM / IRAQ: Bombs, gunmen kill 18 Iraqi and foreign troops. British PM says elements of Iranian regime behind militant attacks in Iraq

Record ID: 353092

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM / IRAQ: Bombs, gunmen kill 18 Iraqi and foreign troops. British PM says elements of Iranian regime behind militant attacks in Iraq
  • Date: 6th April 2007
  • Summary: (BN10) HILLA, IRAQ (APRIL 5, 2007) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF IRAQI SOLDIERS DEPLOYING IN ORCHARDS
  • Embargoed: 21st April 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAESO6MDF4HM90JLNC56SL6EMSI
  • Story Text: Roadside bombs killed eight British and American soldiers on Thursday (April 5) and gunmen shot dead 10 Iraqi troops in one of the bloodiest 24 hours in Iraq for coalition and Iraqi security forces in recent months.
    Four British soldiers and an interpreter were killed by a roadside bomb that destroyed their armoured fighting vehicle when they were ambushed on the outskirts of Basra, said British military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Kevin Stratford-Wright.
    The British military denied accusations by Iraqi police that British troops had stormed a police checkpoint close to the scene of the attack shortly afterwards and beaten some police.
    Six British soldiers have been killed in Iraq this week, making it one of the deadliest for British forces to date.
    At least 140 British soldiers have been killed since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. More than 3,260 U.S. soldiers have been killed.
    Gunmen also killed 10 Iraqi soldiers and wounded one in an attack on Thursday (April 5) on their checkpoint near Mosul, an army source said.
    The source said at least 40 gunmen attacked the checkpoint at dawn northwest of Mosul, setting vehicles on fire and seizing the soldiers' weapons.
    Separately, four American soldiers were killed by two roadside bombs in and around Baghdad on Wednesday (April 4), the U.S. military said.
    Those attacks followed a relatively quiet period in Baghdad, where U.S. and Iraqi forces have deployed thousands more troops to enforce a security crackdown regarded as a last-ditch attempt to stop the country tearing itself apart.
    Sectarian violence between Sunni Arabs and majority Shi'ite Muslims has escalated since the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine a year ago. Since the U.S. invasion in March 2003, tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed and millions displaced.
    The attack in Basra tempered jubilation among British troops in Iraq after Iran sent home 15 British military personnel it had held for two weeks after seizing them in the northern Gulf.
    Blair also accused elements of the Iranian regime of backing militant attacks in Iraq at a news conference outside Downing Street on Thursday (April 5).
    "Just as we rejoice at the return of our 15 service personnel, so today we are grieving and mourning at the loss of our soldiers in Basra, who were killed as a result of a terrorist act. So on the one hand we are glad that our service personnel returned safe and unharmed from their captivity but on the other we return to the sober and ugly reality of what is happening through terrorism in Iraq," said Blair.
    "So I make no allegations with respect to that particular incident but, the general picture as I've said before, is, that there are elements at least, of the Iranian regime that are backing, financing, arming, supporting terrorism in Iraq," he went on to say.
    Mr. Blair said in February Britain would begin withdrawing a quarter of its 7,000 troops, who are stationed mainly in the Basra area, in coming months so Iraqis could eventually take full control of Basra province.
    Iraq's government announced on Wednesday that Iraqi forces would assume control of southern Maysan province from British troops later in April. British forces have already handed back two other southern provinces.
    The U.S. military also said an army helicopter with nine people on board went down south of Baghdad. Four were injured.
    A statement did not give the cause of the incident or any other details. Witnesses reported seeing heavy gunfire force the aircraft down in an insurgent stronghold south of the capital.
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