IRAQ: British Black Watch troops were on the alert in Iraq last night in the wake of a suicide bomb attack near their camp in the "triangle of death" which left two soldiers fighting for life.
The men, both bomb disposal experts, were in the back of an armoured Warrior combat vehicle when a suicide car bomber ploughed into them.
The explosion, within earshot of Camp Dogwood, blew the legs off one of the men and caused horrific limb injuries to the other. Their lives were probably saved by a doctor at the scene.
The men, one serving with the Royal Logistics Corps and the other with the Royal Signals, were airlifted to a US medical facility where their condition was described as "stable" by the Ministry of Defence. They are expected to be transferred to a military hospital in Germany within the next 24 hours.
The rebel action came four days after three Black Watch soldiers were killed following their controversial redeployment in the US controlled area. Also yesterday a car bomb attack on a US military convoy in western Baghdad killed one soldier and wounded four others, the US military said in a statement.
Meanwhile a British contractor was killed in a roadside bomb attack in southern Iraq yesterday, reports said.
The British Foreign Office confirmed a Briton was dead.