Posted on 08/19/2007 7:40:38 PM PDT by blam
Rocket attacks on Basra airbase increase
By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent
Last Updated: 2:41am BST 20/08/2007
Rocket attacks on British troops sheltering at the airbase in Basra have "ramped up considerably" with more than 450 raining down in the last three months, officers said.
The 4,000 service personnel and thousands of civilian employees are becoming increasingly anxious at the upsurge in attacks.
Riflemen from the Royal Green Jackets in Basrah
One officer said that in tented accommodation all people can do is put on their body armour and helmets and "pray" they are not hit.
In the last three months more than 450 rockets have rained down on the airbase with insurgents using the control tower as an aiming point that can be easily seen from miles away in the desert.
"The situation is far worse than is being portrayed back home," said one RAF officer.
"We have no hard cover in most accommodation so people are just relying on luck to stay alive."
The number of attacks has risen dramatically since 2003 when there were no indirect fire barrages.
In 2004 there were 26 attacks, the following year 15 and late last year the attacks dramatically rose to 177.
So far this year there have been more than 600 attacks with the majority coming in the last three months.
Only a year ago troops could wander around the airbase without body armour and relax in the knowledge that there was little fear of attack.
But now helmets and flak jackets are worn almost constantly as the barrage intensifies with an average 10 missiles a day.
The base is also only five miles west of the outskirts of Basra city where insurgents use the notorious Shia Flats to fire on it.
When the last British troops leave the remaining base in the city in the coming months, it is feared the terrorists will turn all their weapons on to the airbase. Over the last year the attacks have intensified as insurgents from the Moqtada al Sadr's Mahdi Army are, with the assistance of Iran, attempting to claim credit for "drumming" the British out.
"It is all being done to give the impression that the Mahdi Army drove us out, thereby giving their status a boost locally at the expense of their two main rivals," a military source said.
While large sandbags have been put in place between accommodation, fears of more fatalities have been raised after three RAF Regiment men were killed while off duty last month.
Another two RAF airmen were seriously injured when a barrage of four rockets hit them when they were driving out in the open.
Rockets rather than mortars are being used with 107mm and 150mm warheads fired from homemade launchpads, such as drainpipes.
But there have been at least 15 attacks using the deadly 240mm rockets that could cause major casualties.
"Accommodation protection is constantly being improved," said Major Mike Shearer, the British military spokesman in Basra.
"The first and most important form of protection is our tactics and procedures to reduce the threat. Next is the equipment to monitor and deal with indirect fire and finally defensive accommodation. However, it must be recognised that it is impossible to completely mitigate against all threats."
The base does have some defensive measures against the incoming, and the RAF Regiment mounts round-the-clock patrol around the perimeter.
But the sheer number of rockets and the huge expanse of desert makes it difficult to prevent the daily incoming.
The increased attacks have also coincided with a significant rises in wounded from Iraq, with 411 injuries in the three months to July.
Exactly as predicted. The Iranians and Sadrites want to be seen as “driving out” the British.
Exactly. This is what the bleating of libs and the press screaming withdrawal will do for you.
“We have no hard cover in most accommodation so people are just relying on luck to stay alive.”
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Political correctness will kill us.
All propsganda which our liberal media and politicians use to proliferate the belief that we’re losing a war we already won and that Iraq has deteriorated into nothing more than a bloodbath which the U.S. is completely responsible for. Sad.
in true american historic fashion, when is the cavalry coming to the rescue, or am i being nostalgic?
This is what happens when you sit back on the defense rather than aggressively go after the bad guys. The result of the Labor party switching over to Democratic war tactics. England needs another Thatcher or Churchill.
It’s time to crank it up Brits. Go out there kill more bad guys. “Gosh they are shooting at us.” Just sounds like bunch of pussys to me. I’d think you Brits had too much R&R in France.
It’s time to crank it up Brits. Go out there kill more bad guys. “Gosh they are shooting at us.” Just sounds like bunch of pussys to me. I’d think you Brits had too much R&R in France.
It’s time to crank it up Brits. Go out there kill more bad guys. “Gosh they are shooting at us.” Just sounds like bunch of pussys to me. I’d think you Brits had too much R&R in France.
One officer said that in tented accommodation all people can do is put on their body armour and helmets and “pray” they are not hit.
“The situation is far worse than is being portrayed back home,” said one RAF officer.
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This is incredible.
I simply do not believe that they have not dug and covered suitable bunkers outside each “tented accommodation”.
England doesn’t need another Thatcher or Churchill as much as it needs those who are proud enough being British to VOTE for another Thatcher or Churchill.
Yep. It seems that they’d have engineers (the other kind, combat heavies, construction type) by now. They’ve been there for years.
It’s time to crank it up Brits. Go out there kill more bad guys. “Gosh they are shooting at us.” Just sounds like bunch of pussys to me. I’d think you Brits had too much R&R in France.
I know that they have the light (cbt.) kind. They retrained with ours after the Falklands thing.
seems like they ought to have had entrenching tools all of this time, too. But maybe not?
They have e-tools. I do remember a complaint from some in the field, though: “...too many bloody foxholes.”
No doubt the Brit Soldiers want to fight, kick butt.
This is a case of the Euro Socialists winning again. Socialist UK Government hamstringing the operation. When will the citizens of the UK, and various other EU wake up and shed themselves of the Anus Orifices?
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