UK soldiers’ spoof Iraq video crashes computers

LONDON- British soldiers serving in Iraq crashed defence ministry computers in London last week after officials downloaded a spoof video the troops had made of a chart-topping song.

The soldiers' four-minute video take of the 1971 hit Is This The Way To Amarillo had officers laughing out loud back at London headquarters as they e-mailed copies to each other.

"The video is really good," a military spokesman said on Tuesday.

But computers could not cope with the demand and the e-mail server was paralysed for "several hours" on Friday, May 13, he said.

"The video was a good way of maintaining morale on operations. The fact that it proved so popular was unfortunate, but the system failure did not affect operational capabilities," he added.

The original song was re-released earlier this year with British comic Peter Kay miming to Tony Christie's original.

The soldiers' version was entitled Is This The Way To Armadillo?

In the spoof video, a soldier looking like Kay marches through a British base in Iraq calling on fellow troopers to join him, including two dressed only in underwear, webbing and rifles.

- REUTERS