British Soldier Killed while US Commander Complains of Lack of Intelligence from Iraqis

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, August 29, 2003

British Soldier Killed while US Commander Complains of Lack of Intelligence from Iraqis

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One more British soldier Thursday was confirmed killed in southern Iraq while the US commander blamedthe deteriorating situation on lack of intelligence from Iraqis rather than shortage of military personnel.

A British military convoy from the 1st Battalion of the King's Own Scottish Borderers was returning from an arrest operation on Wednesday night when it was surrounded by groups of Iraqis near Alial-Sharqi, 280 km south of Baghdad.

The troops fired in the air trying to disperse the crowd before someone fired rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms at them, killing one soldier and wounded another, said the coalition military.

The British troops then called in a medical team and helicopters, and retreated to a nearby base after detaining ten suspects.

Military sources associated the assault with the Iraqis the British troops had arrested as "anti-coalition activists" during their operation in Ali al-Gharbi, 40 km north of the site of the incident.

The death toll brings to 11 the number of British soldiers confirmed killed in Iraq since US President George W. Bush declaredmajor combat over on May 1.

British forces, occupying the southern major city of Basrah for five months, rarely met as fierce attacks as the US soldiers did innorth and west of the capital city of Baghdad.

In the restive town of Falluja, 100 km west of Baghdad, four US soldiers were wounded when an improvise explosive device went off under a bridge at 1:30 p.m. (0930 GMT) Thursday.

After the explosion, hundreds of local people waged a demonstration, chanting slogans supporting the ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and denounced US President George W. Bush.

While welcoming a larger international force in Iraq, the commander of US forces in Iraq Ricardo Sanchez said on Thursday that simply increasing the number of troops will not help enhance security in the war-ravaged country.

"Putting more soldiers on the ground is not going to solve the problem if I don't have the intelligence to act on," he told a press conference here.

"This environment is an environment that requires intelligence... the ability to move forces around the battlefield rapidly to counter those threats," he added.

Sanchez's remarks came as the White House was mulling over a multinational force under the UN authority with a US command.

The idea was first described by Richard Armitage, deputy secretary of the State Department, as just "one idea being explored" in discussions at the United Nations.

The US government, which was seeking a broader international support for its mission in Iraq, had previously ruled out ceding any control to the United Nations.

Meanwhile, Dubai-based al-Arabiya satellite television Thursday reported that some witnesses said they saw Saddam several days ago in Mosul, 450 km north of Baghdad, and he "looked in psychological and physical trouble."

Mosul, the third largest city in Iraq, is the scene of a fierce raid by the US forces late last month that killed Saddam's two elder sons, Uday and Qusay.

Observers believed that the major northern city is an ideal place for the ousted president and his henchmen to hide, where theycan easily flee into the surrounding vast desert when necessary.

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