3 British Troops Slain Near Baghdad

A suicide bomber killed three British soldiers and their Iraqi interpreter Thursday, just days after they had been repositioned near Baghdad to relieve U.S. forces preparing for an assault on Fallouja.

The decision of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government to move 850 troops with the Black Watch regiment from relatively safe bases in southern Iraq to the hotly contested Sunni Muslim heartland ignited controversy in Britain, with some lawmakers claiming that it was a symbolic move mainly meant to boost President Bush’s reelection campaign.

The latest casualties -- besides those killed, eight soldiers were wounded in the attack -- added to the disquiet and prompted some Parliament members to again lambaste the government.

“The troops have been sent into an impossible situation,” said Alex Salmond, leader of the Scottish National Party, who represents families of the heavily armored regiment recruited mainly from Scotland.

“I believe that this was a political deployment. I think the request was political, and I think the answer was political,” he said, speaking to the Sky News channel after the losses were announced. “This deployment was not right, and every Black Watch family knows it.”

He urged that the troops be redeployed back to the British sector of operations “as soon as possible” and that British and U.S. forces leave Iraq and turn over responsibilities to peacekeepers from Arab nations.

Details of the incident were sparse, but Adam Ingram, the armed forces minister, said that the car bomber had blown himself up at a checkpoint set up by the Scottish soldiers and that troops who went to the rescue came under mortar shelling.

But Ingram denied that the troops were unprepared or badly exposed after they were moved into the area near Iskandariya, south of Baghdad.

“It could have happened at any time in any area of responsibility,” he told reporters. “Iraq has many dangerous points.... That could happen at any point in time at any part of Iraq.”

The attack came less than a week after the troops had arrived in the area, where they were expected to close off possible escape routes for insurgents who might try to flee Fallouja after the expected U.S. assault on the rebel-held city.

The troops arrived Oct. 29 and already had come under repeated mortar attacks.

According to the Times of London, the forces were handing out fliers in Arabic that identified them as Scottish troops, not English, and showed the Scottish flag of St. Andrews rather than the Union Jack -- in hopes of mollifying the people of the area.

Ingram defended the mission as essential to backing up the U.S. forces preparing to quell the Fallouja rebels.

“What our troops are doing is absolutely vital in bringing stability to Iraq,” he said.

The deaths raised the British military toll to about 70 since the war began in March 2003.

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Janet Stobart of The Times’ London Bureau contributed to this report.