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The new defence secretary, Grant Shapps, said he has held talks with army leaders about deploying British troops within Ukraine for the first time for a training programme.Shapps, who met Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, for talks in Kyiv earlier this week, said the proposal being discussed would reduce the reliance on the UK and other Nato members’ bases.The programme of training for Ukraine’s military, supported by 10 other nations, has taught skills to more than 26,500 recruits and is on track to have trained more than 30,000 soldiers by the end of the year, according to the UK’s Ministry of...

British troops fighting Ebola being given banned drugBritish troops fighting the Ebola outbreak in West Africa are being given an anti-malarial drug banned in the US, putting them at grave risks, a report said Sunday. The British ministry of defence has refused to stop using the controversial drug mefloquine, which is known to cause psychotic disorders, including suicidal tendencies among users, The Independent reported. Lariam (the drug's brand name) is among the anti-malarials being given to the 800 British service personnel currently deployed in Sierra Leone on Operation Gritrock. Fears over the risks of psychosis and suicide prompted the...

British Defense Secretary Liam Fox has announced plans to deploy British troops on the Libyan border with Tunisia. In a parliamentary session on Wednesday, Fox claimed the British troops will be dispatched to the border to enforce “safe havens” for more than 30,000 civilian refugees fleeing from attacks by Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi's troops, the Independent reported. He also asserted that the troop deployment would be within the terms of a UN resolution authorizing military action in Libya. Defying warnings that the UK may have to prepare itself for a long war, Fox reiterated that British operation in Libya “isn't...

Soldiers 'dying because of cuts': Brown starved forces of cash, says ex-defence chief MATTHEW HICKLEY 10th July 2009 Attack: Lord Guthrie said the lives of British troops in Afghanistan were endangered because of cash shortages A former head of the armed forces yesterday accused Gordon Brown of endangering the lives of British troops in Afghanistan by starving the military of funds. In a devastating personal attack, Lord Guthrie said that under Mr Brown the Treasury had spent 'the minimum they could get away with' on defence. The resulting shortage of helicopters in Afghanistan has led to more British soldiers being...

KABUL – British forces killed an alleged Taliban leader in southern Afghanistan, U.K. and Afghan officials said Tuesday, in what they claimed was a major victory against the insurgency there. Mullah Mansur was killed in a strike by helicopters in Helmand province, the British defense ministry said. Helmand government spokesman Daoud Ahmadi said Mansur was the aviation minister in the Taliban regime that was ousted by the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

Note: The following text is a quote: May 8, 2009 UK bans cross-shaped medal as offensive to Muslims and Hindus When in Muslim countries, non-Muslims must conform their behavior to Muslim sensibilities. In non-Muslim countries, non-Muslims must conform their behavior to Muslim sensibilities. Got it? It is a pity that the prevailing multiculturalist fog is such that the Hindus joined this initiative. They may ultimately find their allies in this struggle turning on them. Cultural Abdication Alert from Absurd Britannia: "Queen's medal of honour scrapped... because it's too Christian for Muslims and Hindus," from the Daily Mail, May 8 (thanks...

LONDON - Iraq's defense minister said Wednesday his commanders were surprised when Britain recently announced plans to withdraw some of its troops from Iraq, but that his country's forces will be ready to replace them. "I am absolutely confident that Iraq's army is quite ready to meet the challenges, even if the withdrawal becomes quite sudden," Defense Minister Abdul-Qader Mohammed Jassim said at a news conference. On Tuesday, Iraqi forces in southern Iraq replaced British troops at a frequently targeted base in Basra. The British commander, Maj. Gen. Jonathan Shaw, said the move was part of the plan to shift...

British forces killed seven gunmen and blew up the headquarters of the police serious crimes unit in southern Basra in a raid to rescue prisoners who were about to be killed, the British military said. Calling the police station a centre of "criminal enterprise" and a symbol of oppression for the city's residents, the military said the building was demolished with explosives after a pre-dawn assault by around 1,000 troops backed by tanks. Many of its 127 prisoners, all suspected criminals, were found crowded into a small cell, living in "appalling conditions", the military said. A number had crushed feet...

Tony Blair set a 16-month limit for keeping British troops in Iraq yesterday as he admitted for the first time that they would be a "provocation" if they stayed too long. Under mounting pressure from senior military and political figures to offer an end date to the allied presence, he told MPs at Prime Minister's Questions that to withdraw before "the job is done" would be "disastrous". David Cameron reduced Tory support for the Government and accused him of hiding the truth about Iraq but Mr Blair moved to reassure MPs that troops would be out by early 2008. It...

KABUL, Afghanistan - British troops pulled out of a troubled district in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, while a U.S.-led coalition airstrike killed a suspected midlevel Taliban commander and up to 15 other militants, NATO said. NATO also said it was launching a new countrywide military operation with Afghan forces to maintain pressure on the Taliban over the fall and winter, and pave the way for long-promised development after the bitterest fighting in five years. Mark Laity, a NATO spokesman in Kabul, said the decision to withdraw the British troops from Helmand province's Musa Qala district follows an agreement with tribal...

Iraq took full control of a province from foreign troops for the first time since the 2003 US-led invasion on Thursday, but clashes in Baghdad underlined the security challenges facing the new government. Addressing a ceremony to mark the handover of southern Muthanna province from British-led troops to Iraqis, Iraq's prime minister warned that insurgents would try to stage attacks to mar a day "written with golden letters in Iraq's history." "Terrorists who want to disrupt the handover of security and the success of the national unity government will not spare any effort to sabotage this step," Nuri al-Maliki said...

Middle East Times British troops arrest Iraq police after attacks By AFPMiddle East Times Published October 7, 2005 British troops in southern Iraq have arrested 12 people, including policemen and militiamen, on terrorist charges following recent attacks on their forces, a British commander said on Friday.          "Some of the individuals we have arrested are linked to militia groups in Basra ... some of the individuals are members of the Basra police service," Brigadier John Lorimer said in a statement following the Thursday evening arrests.          A leader of the Mehdi Army militia, loyal to firebrand Shia cleric Moqtada...

The officer who commanded the operation to rescue two SAS troopers in Basra refused last night to apologise for his actions and promised to do the same again if British soldiers' lives were in danger."The message this action has sent to terrorists around the world is that they cannot expect to take British soldiers hostage and get away with it," said Brig John Lorimer.In an exclusive interview with The Sunday Telegraph, he added: "It would be inappropriate for the British Army to apologise."

Another jihadist terrorist in his sight. A U.S. Army 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment soldier scans the area through his rifle scope during a joint early morning raid on insurgent targets in Mosul, Iraq. 11-26-04 DEFEATED JIHADISTS! These islamic terrorists came to Iraq for the sole purpose of creating chaos & death. They were caught! Islamists, you will NOT win anything! ---raqi policeman takes off blindfold of Walid Mohammed, from Tunisia, while Bassem Faleh from Saudi Arabia looks on in Basra Iraq (news - web sites) Friday Nov. 26th 2004. The two and three other foreign fighters were captured...

Up to 650 British troops may move into more dangerous areas near Baghdad to cover for U.S. units battling insurgents in the rebel-held city of Fallujah and elsewhere, reports said yesterday. Such shifts would mark the first time those troops have operated outside the relatively quiet Basra area of southern Iraq, where 8,000 British soldiers are stationed. The threat of more British casualties will no doubt be uncomfortable to Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose unpopular decision to join President Bush in the March 2003 invasion has hurt his poll ratings and divided his party. Britain's contribution to the invasion last...

LONDON (AFP) - Britain will withdraw from Iraq (news - web sites) when democratic elections rather than "terrorists" and supporters of ousted president Saddam Hussein determine its future, Prime Minister Tony Blair vowed. "Yeah, there is an exit strategy," Blair told a reporter who asked if there was a way out of the violence and turmoil in Iraq. "We go when the job is done." "And the job we're trying to do is to help the Iraqi people and the Iraqi government ... to allow the future of Iraq to be determined by the ballot box" rather than by "terrorists"...

HUNDREDS of boats ply their trade along Iraq’s tiny southern coastline every day but there was something dramatically wrong with the three dhows boarded by British troops. Crammed with nearly 1,000 sheep, their dark holds stank of death, writhing bodies piled upon rotting corpses. What first appeared to be a case of rank animal abuse took an even more sinister turn when one of the crewmen was identified as a supporter of the radical sheik Moqtada al Sadr. Lt Charlie Blake, a member of the Royal Yeomanry attached to the Queen’s Royal Lancers (QRL), soon discovered his men had...

A CONTROVERSIAL move to send 3,000 British troops to Iraqi tinderbox Najaf is to be shelved. Tony Blair believes taking control of Shia Muslims' holiest city could unleash political and public outrage and fuel demands for him to quit. The delay emerged yesterday as the Premier refused to publicly denounce the US over Iraq, saying it would damage troop morale. Mr Blair was expected to announce the imminent departure of Marines and Paras to Najaf, HQ of radical cleric Moqtadr al-Sadr. But a senior Army source revealed: "The Government's appetite to take on Najaf has all but disappeared. It doesn't...

WITH BAYONETS ATTACHED, THEY FINISHED OFF THE ENEMY WHO HAD NOT RUN AWAY.. May 21 2004 SCOTS TELL OF CHARGE By Keith Mcleod And Michael Christie SCOTS soldiers last night told how they launched a bayonet charge on Iraqi militiamen after hours of battle. An Army insider last night gave the Record an insight into the bravery of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. They were forced to use 'cold steel' as supplies of ammunition ran low. Many of the militiamen turned and fled but the close-quarters fighting left around 20 rebels dead. Thirty-five of Shia Moslem cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's followers...

'War rumbles on' in southern Iraq By Ben Brown BBC correspondent in Amara, southern Iraq British troops are 'struggling to control' Amara Just after midnight, British tanks and armoured personnel carriers rumble into action. They are hunting down their enemy here, Shia rebels loyal to the radical cleric Moqtada Sadr. Around Amara, it is not so much a question of peacekeeping as war fighting. The British troops fire flares to light up the landscape. Infantry then fan out and pursue four suspected insurgents who have been spotted through night sights. The flares set fire to vegetation. Just the night before,...