NZ engineers get back to work in Iraq

By HELEN TUNNAH

New Zealand's soldiers in Iraq remain on a high state of alert but were expected to resume reconstruction work overnight, Defence Minister Mark Burton said yesterday.

There were no plans to review the presence of the engineers in Iraq, he said.

They had spent recent days within their base camp at Fortress Lines, about half an hour's drive from central Basra as a "sensible" precaution.

"There haven't been any direct threats made against New Zealanders," he told the Herald.

"It's a matter of exercising operating care.

"It's always been a potentially dangerous situation."

New Zealand's senior national officer in Basra, Lieutenant Colonel Ants Howie said last night while New Zealand and British engineers working there had not been directly targeted by attacks, other troops had been fired on by militia using rockets, mortars and small arms. There had also been an increase in roadside bombs.

"There was a coordinated plan to engage with coalition forces in and around Basra. We could see the tempo was increasing and being sustained.

"Our particular base was not targeted, there was overhead fire at certain times."

He said the families of the 61 engineers and support soldiers in Basra could be assured they were secure.

"The guys are safe and well, and they have not been in harm's way. The situation was very tense but it is now calm.

"The path to independence is going to be a difficult one, we expected it to be extremely tense at times. It is a very tense time for all of Iraq at the moment, because of everything you are seeing on the television."

The southern port city has escaped much of the latest recent increase in violence in Iraq, although tensions rose last week amid an uprising led by Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in cities further north.

The arrest of an al-Sadr deputy in Basra last Monday prompted fighting between his militia and British troops, but there were no reports of injuries to coalition forces.

Although the engineers continued reconstruction work for most of the week, installing water tanks in schools near Fortress Lines, they withdrew into their camp overnight on Friday.

It is not the first time New Zealand troops in Basra have had to remain inside the camp because of escalating rising violence.

Mr Burton said he understood precautions were taken by the New Zealanders not because of problems in Basra itself, but because of an upsurge in fighting across Iraq between United States-led forces and militiamen, and the kidnapping of Western aid workers and journalists.

"It was taking a sensible precautionary approach," Mr Burton said. "There is nothing to suggest that we need to in any way fundamentally review the deployment."

Prime Minister Helen Clark has already announced the term will not be extended.

She said yesterday that increased violence last November, about the time she made a secret visit to the first team of engineers to Basra, had kept them at base for several days.

"They were able to resume [work] and get along and do a lot of good projects.

"Who knows whether this will die down, or whether it will reach new levels."

NZ deployment

* The New Zealand contingent in Iraq consists of Army, Navy and Air Force personnel, including logistics, catering staff and engineers.

* They are based in a former Iraq naval academy in Basra, about 500km from the heart of the Sunni Muslim territory where Iraqi extremists have stepped up their campaign of violence towards the Coalition forces.


Herald Feature: Iraq