Suicide attack in Iraq kills three British soldiers, wounds eight
BAGHDAD -- Insurgents attacked British troops at a checkpoint in central Iraq yesterday, killing three and wounding eight in a suicide bomb and mortar barrage aimed at soldiers sent to the high-risk area to free US forces for an assault on the militant stronghold of Fallujah.
US troops pounded Fallujah with airstrikes and artillery fire, softening up militants ahead of the expected assault. Loudspeakers at Fallujah mosques blared out Koranic verses and shouts of "Allahu akbar," or "God is great," during the assault, residents said.
The three British soldiers were from the Black Watch regiment, which was moved last month from relatively quiet southern Iraq to the dangerous area just south of Baghdad.
An Iraqi interpreter also was killed in the attack, British officials said.
Britain's armed forces minister, Adam Ingram, said in London that the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber in a vehicle and that the British checkpoint also came under mortar fire.
The deaths bring the number of British troops killed in Iraq to 73. It was the worst single combat loss for the British since three Royal Military Police were killed in the southern city of Basra in August 2003.
A suicide car bomber also targeted a US Marine convoy near Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, but only the attacker died in the explosion, US officials said.
Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain agreed to a US request to move British troops to central Iraq despite considerable opposition at home, even within his Labor Party.
Angus Robertson, a spokesman for the Scottish Nationalist Party, warned that the deaths would have "profound implications" for public opinion in Scotland, where the Black Watch regiment is recruited.
US and Iraqi officials want to clear insurgents from Fallujah and other Sunni Muslim areas north and west of Baghdad so elections can be held by the end of January.
The New York Times said today that Iraqi electoral officials have decided to allow millions of Iraqis outside the country to vote in the election. The decision risks increasing tensions among Sunni Arabs since most Iraqi expatriates are believed to be Shi'ites.
Meanwhile, the deteriorating security situation prompted the humanitarian organization Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, to announce it was shutting down its operations in Iraq.
