Blast kills 100th UK soldier in Iraq

LONDON  - An explosion yesterday killed the 100th British soldier of the Iraq war, but Prime Minister Tony Blair said there would be no backing away from the mission.

Three other soldiers were hurt - one seriously - in the blast on Tuesday morning in the southern port of Umm Qasr in Basra province, the defence ministry said.

Blair told Reuters television that Britain would not change course, either in Iraq or Afghanistan.

"Our response has got to be not to walk away from the situation but to redouble our efforts to make sure the people of Afghanistan and Iraq achieve the democracy they want," he said.
"In achieving that, we enhance our own security here.

"We should give our thanks to the British troops and the extraordinary courage they have displayed in Iraq and Afghanistan and other places in the world," he added.

"It is a tragedy when we lose any soldier but we have to understand why it's important to see it through."

In a sign of the political sensitivity of the milestone, Defence Secretary John Reid took the rare step of announcing the 100th death to reporters outside ministry headquarters.

"It's an appropriate time to reflect on the determination, courage, professionalism and sacrifice of our armed forces themselves, and of the families who also sustain them there," he said. "Every single one of the deaths is a tragedy."

The 99th soldier died on Monday when his patrol came under fire in Maysan province.

NEW AFGHAN MISSION

The latest deaths in Iraq came just days after Reid announced an ambitious new three-year British mission in southern Afghanistan, which will take NATO peacekeepers into that dangerous part of that country for the first time.

The Afghanistan plans were drawn up at a time when leaders were hoping to cut back their forces in Iraq quickly, starting early this year. But unrest in southern Iraq has so far held up plans for a British withdrawal there.

Blair said the two missions together were part of a struggle against terrorism.

"What is happening in Afghanistan and Iraq is that the people in those countries want to leave behind terrorism and extremism and embrace democracy.

"If they succeed, that's a blow not just for the people in Iraq and Afghanistan but it is a blow against the very international terrorism we saw in London and other parts of Europe and have seen in other parts of the world."

WAR OPPONENTS

But opponents of the Iraq war, including some families of soldiers who died there, said it was time to pull out. The Stop The War Coalition planned a vigil at parliament on Tuesday evening to read out the names of the dead.

The family of the 99th soldier killed, Lance Corporal Allan Douglas, said he, too, opposed the war and did not want to go.

"Allan was against the war," his father Walter told Scotland's Daily Record newspaper. "He couldn't see the point of it. But he thought it was his duty to be there and he had no choice."

The defence ministry did not give the identity of the 100th soldier, nor of the others hurt in Tuesday's blast, all from the 7th Armoured Brigade, the main British force in Iraq. The three injured soldiers were being treated at a British base.

Of the 100 who have died, 77 British troops are listed as killed in action and the rest died through accident or illness.

Britain has about 8,000 troops in southern Iraq. Commanders say the area has become more dangerous over the past 8-9 months as guerrillas have developed deadlier forms of roadside bombs.

- REUTERS