British Plan to Establish POW Camp
Britain is sending another battalion of troops to the Persian Gulf to set up prisoner of war camps and has called up an air force reserve squadron to help with logistics, Defense Secretary Tom King said today.
King also said at a news conference that a British bomber destroyed a taxiing Iraqi Mirage fighter with a new crater-bomb designed to carve up runways.
King reiterated pleas by Prime Minister John Major to Israel not to retaliate to today’s missile attack by Iraq. “But we also have every sympathy and understanding for the position they (the Israelis) face,” King said.
Britain has stressed to Iraq and to the International Committee of the Red Cross that it expects prisoners of war to be treated according to Geneva conventions, King said. “Those expectations have been very fully conveyed to the Iraqi authorities,” he said.
There was no word on the departure date for the extra troops, 500 men from the elite Coldstream Guards. The Royal Air Force reserve squadron of 200 has been ordered to report immediately.
King said the Iraqi Mirage was destroyed by a JP-233 crater-bomb dropped by a Tornado as it swooped in on an Iraqi runway. The Mirage was moving but unable to get off the ground, King said.
The British-built bomb, which also sews delayed-action land mines to deter repairs, is being used for the first time in combat.
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