Mortar fire kills four troops in three days

A British soldier who died in Iraq on Saturday as a result of an indirect fire attack on the base at Basra Palace has been named.

Lance Corporal Timothy Darren “Daz” Flowers, 25, who lived in Northern Ireland, was working on a vehicle park when the attack occurred. He was hit by shrapnel and later died from his injuries, the Ministry of Defence said. The death on Saturday brought the number of British troops killed by rockets or mortar bombs in Iraq to four in three days.

Lance Corporal Flowers joined the Army in January 2003. He served with the Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers, attached to the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment and serving with the Irish Guards Battle Group in Iraq.

Commanding Officer of the Irish Guards Battle Group, Lieutenant-Colonel Michael O’Dwyer, said: “He died on the dusty vehicle park in the heat of the day, doing what he did best — preparing vehicles for other people”.

Artificer Quarter Master Sergeant “Loz” Lee, Lance Corporal Flowers’ commander, said of him: “A natural mechanic, he was at his happiest on the Tank Park, spanner in hand.”

The three RAF senior aircraftsmen killed on Thursday when a rocket or mortar bomb hit the main British military camp next to Basra airport were formally named as Matthew Caulwell, Christopher Dunsmore and Peter McFerran. SAC Caulwell, 22, and SAC McFerran, 24, from 1 Squadron RAF Regiment, and SAC Dunsmore, 29, of 504 Squadron Royal Auxiliary Air Force Regiment, died when the Contingency Operating Base in Basra came under fire. Several soldiers were injured.

Meanwhile, the US and Iran have set a date for talks on the Iraqi security situation. According to Philip Reeker, a US Embassy spokesman, the two sides will sit down on Tuesday.

The US has long accused Iran of supporting attacks on its troops in Iraq, and mortar bomb or rocket attacks by Iranian-backed Iraqi militia are a constant threat to the bases at Basra airport and the palace. Brigadier James Bashall, commander of 1 Mechanised Brigade, currently the biggest element of Britain’s deployment in Basra, said that such attacks were on the increase as British forces worked towards handing back the province to the Iraqis later this year. He said that elements of the Shia al-Mahdi Army, in the pay of Iran, were hoping to score points in the propaganda war by hitting British troops as they pushed on with the transition so it appeared that they were retreating.

“That is the whole strategy. Embarrass the West and make it look like they have bombed us out of Basra, out of Iraq frankly,” Brigadier Bashall said. “It hasn’t affected our military plan . . . It makes it more difficult. We are waging a proxy war against Iranian-backed secret cells.

“They are saying to these JAM guys [members of the al-Mahdi Army militia], ‘Hey, look, I will give you money to fire rockets at the British’, and they are providing training or technology.”

About 90 per cent of the violence in Basra is directed against the British soldiers. The planned withdrawal from Basra palace at the end of the summer, before a full transition of power back to Iraqi ownership in the autumn, would mean that the daily pounding at the compound would stop, Brigadier Bashall predicted.

However, the Army’s hub at the airport was likely to remain a target until the British left. He added that rival Shia militia were expected to battle between themselves for a while until a balance of power was found.