ARMY investigators were struggling last night to discover whether four or five service personnel had been killed when an Army Lynx helicopter was shot down over central Basra. Although it was initially declared that four had died, there were fears that a fifth serviceman may have been on board.
The Ministry of Defence refused to supply any details of the dead servicemen, or the mission in which they were involved, until they were sure how many had died and the next of kin had been informed.
The Lynx Mark 7 helicopter, one of about nine flying regular patrols in southern Iraq, is believed to have been brought down on Saturday by a rocket-propelled grenade fired from up to 300 yards away by a gunman who got a lucky shot.
There were also different accounts of how a number of “civilians” were killed in the consequent confrontation between soldiers from the 1st Battalion The Light Infantry who arrived at the scene of the crashed helicopter, and a crowd of Iraqis who attacked them with blast bombs, stones, petrol bombs, and opened fire with AK47 Kalashnikov rifles.
The Iraqi police said that five civilians, including two children, died from bullet wounds. The British Army said that it had fired plastic baton rounds at the crowd, and then had to resort to live rounds, although only three were fired.
Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, will make a statement on the crash in the Commons today. Yesterday he argued that fewer than 300 people had taken part in the clashes in Basra, and that they had been brought under control within hours. “It is not an indication of the state of Basra,” he insisted.
As a curfew was imposed for the second consecutive night in Iraq’s second city, relatives of the dead Iraqis accused British troops of opening fire on gangs of youths celebrating the helicopter crash. But British military commanders said that the deaths were caused by militants who had used the crowd as human shields as they attacked the British troops.
They said that the militants had also fired mortars and blast bombs at the rescuers and local firemen, and shrapnel is believed to have caused many of the injuries to 45 civilians, some of whom were children.
Members of the al-Mahdi Army, the militia which supports the radical Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, were being blamed for the attack on the helicopter and the subsequent assault on the British troops. Two armoured vehicles were set on fire and several British soldiers received minor injuries.
The attack on the Lynx was the first time that a British helicopter had been shot down in Iraq since Operation Telic began in March 2003. Military commanders in southern Iraq rarely use the Lynx to ferry troops around. They use it mostly for routine trips, often with media or VIP visitors, or for surveillance.
As the British Army investigators began examining the debris of the wrecked helicopter, which crashed in a residential neighbourhood, Iraqi police chiefs in Basra said that they wanted to interview locals who claimed to have witnessed the rocket attack by Islamic militants.
The suspected weapon, an RPG7, is light enough to be carried and fired by a single operator.
The Lynx is equipped with special defensive systems to evade heat-seeking surface-to-air missiles, such as chaff and flares to confuse an oncoming missile. But it is vulnerable to rocket-propelled grenades and has no system to evade such an attack other than through tactical flying.
The Ministry of Defence refused to supply any details of the dead servicemen, or the mission in which they were involved, until they were sure how many had died and the next of kin had been informed.
The Lynx Mark 7 helicopter, one of about nine flying regular patrols in southern Iraq, is believed to have been brought down on Saturday by a rocket-propelled grenade fired from up to 300 yards away by a gunman who got a lucky shot.
There were also different accounts of how a number of “civilians” were killed in the consequent confrontation between soldiers from the 1st Battalion The Light Infantry who arrived at the scene of the crashed helicopter, and a crowd of Iraqis who attacked them with blast bombs, stones, petrol bombs, and opened fire with AK47 Kalashnikov rifles.
The Iraqi police said that five civilians, including two children, died from bullet wounds. The British Army said that it had fired plastic baton rounds at the crowd, and then had to resort to live rounds, although only three were fired.
Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, will make a statement on the crash in the Commons today. Yesterday he argued that fewer than 300 people had taken part in the clashes in Basra, and that they had been brought under control within hours. “It is not an indication of the state of Basra,” he insisted.
As a curfew was imposed for the second consecutive night in Iraq’s second city, relatives of the dead Iraqis accused British troops of opening fire on gangs of youths celebrating the helicopter crash. But British military commanders said that the deaths were caused by militants who had used the crowd as human shields as they attacked the British troops.
They said that the militants had also fired mortars and blast bombs at the rescuers and local firemen, and shrapnel is believed to have caused many of the injuries to 45 civilians, some of whom were children.
Members of the al-Mahdi Army, the militia which supports the radical Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, were being blamed for the attack on the helicopter and the subsequent assault on the British troops. Two armoured vehicles were set on fire and several British soldiers received minor injuries.
The attack on the Lynx was the first time that a British helicopter had been shot down in Iraq since Operation Telic began in March 2003. Military commanders in southern Iraq rarely use the Lynx to ferry troops around. They use it mostly for routine trips, often with media or VIP visitors, or for surveillance.
As the British Army investigators began examining the debris of the wrecked helicopter, which crashed in a residential neighbourhood, Iraqi police chiefs in Basra said that they wanted to interview locals who claimed to have witnessed the rocket attack by Islamic militants.
The suspected weapon, an RPG7, is light enough to be carried and fired by a single operator.
The Lynx is equipped with special defensive systems to evade heat-seeking surface-to-air missiles, such as chaff and flares to confuse an oncoming missile. But it is vulnerable to rocket-propelled grenades and has no system to evade such an attack other than through tactical flying.
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