[A-List] UK military: Northern Iraq debacle

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

How long before one of these troublesome missiles, the kind that manage to
find their way into Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, not to mention a Baghdad
market place, accidentally end up scoring a direct hit on Al-Jazeera's Qatar
headquarters, as it did its Kabul office during the Afghanistan bombing
campaign? Clearly we have much to thank these former employees of the BBC
World Service Arab division, whose former employers must be kicking
themselves for such an unintended consequence of "rationalisation".

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Iraqis seize British Land Rover and weapons
LORNA MARTIN
The Herald, 2 April 2003

IRAQI citizens yesterday seized a British Land Rover and other equipment,
including anti-tank weapons, after they were dropped into the north of the
country, according to unconfirmed reports.

Locals near the northern city of Mosul recovered the heavily-armoured
vehicle, which had its machine-gun still intact, Iraqi TV reported.

Pictures of the Land Rover being driven by Iraqis were shown on state
television and on the Qatar-based satellite broadcaster al-Jazeera.

Ministry of Defence officials have not said elite British units such as the
SAS are operating in the area. A spokeswoman said the MoD was aware of the
reports and was investigating.

The claim was made as US planes pounded targets just outside the northern
Iraqi city of Kirkuk in the heaviest attack on the strategic oil hub since
the war started.

As the US military intensified its efforts to open up a northern front ,
huge plumes of black smoke rose from targets just north of the town.

Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, Iraq's information minister, said Iraqi forces had
thwarted a landing by British troops near Mosul. This could not be
independently confirmed and a British spokesman in Qatar said he knew
nothing about British forces attempting to land in northern Iraq.

US military commanders have revealed that Kurdish peshmerga guerrillas have
been working with coalition special forces in the north-east of Iraq.

Their work has mainly been to secure a base with the help of infantry from
the 173rd Airborne division of the US Army, and targeting Ansar al-Islam, a
militant group allegedly linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.