British troops & civilians killed in terror attacks

Terror attacks today against British troops and civilians have left four dead and 7 injured.
Two British soldiers have been killed in Iraq and one has been killed in Afghanistan. It comes two days after 14 British service personnel died when their plane, a Nimrod MR2, came down near Kandahar, Afghanistan. In the Iraqi incident a patrol in the southern city of Basra came under small arms fire and an IED attack according to MoD sources [BBC]. In another incident, a base came under attack from mortar rounds. Two other soldiers were also injured in the attack on the patrol. It brings the British casualty numbers to 117 since Operation Iraqi Freedom commenced in March 2003. The coalition body-count now stands at 2,879.

In Afghanistan a bomb attack in Kabul killed four Afghan civilians as well as one British soldier [BBC]. It brings the British death toll to 37 since Operation Enduring Freedom started in 2001 . The total casualty list for all countries involved in the fight against the Taleban is now 468, the majority of which are US troops who have lost 333.

Civilians too have been the target of terrorist attacks. In Amman, the Jordanian capital, a British civilian was amongst a number of people shot by a lone gunman today. According to eyewitnesses the gunman shouted ‘Allahu akbar’ [الله أكبر] God is great, before firing into a crowd of tourists. A British man was killed in the attack, and 5 others were injured; two British women, a New Zealander, a Netherlander and an Australian [BBC]. The city was also the target of a number of bomb attacks in November 2005. Those attacks on three hotels killed sixty. The Foreign Office has warned tourists not to travel to the area warning of a “high threat to terrorism”.