Apology for Blair's claim of 'executions'
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Your support makes all the difference.The Government apologised yesterday to the families of two dead British soldiers over claims by Tony Blair that the men had been "executed" by Iraqi militiamen.
Adam Ingram, the Armed Forces minister, expressed "regret" for any distress caused by the Prime Minister's condemnation of a broadcast on al-Jazeera television which showed the men's bodies.
Mr Ingram's apology is a serious embarrassment for Mr Blair, who highlighted the deaths of the soldiers during his press conference on Thursday with George Bush at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland.
Sapper Luke Allsopp and Staff Sergeant Simon Cullingworth were killed by Iraqi gunmen during an ambush of their vehicle in southern Iraq.
Mr Blair had said that the television footage showed an "atrocity" that was "beyond the comprehension of anyone with an ounce of humanity in their souls".
But within hours of his remarks, Mr Allsopp's sister revealed that she had been told by the colonel from his barracks that her brother had died "instantly" in the ambush. Michael Pawsey, Sapper Allsopp's stepfather, said that as far as the family was concerned he was killed in action.
Speaking at a Ministry of Defence briefing yesterday, Mr Ingram said Mr Blair's remarks were aimed at "pointing up" the depravity of Saddam Hussein's regime. "Given the information available to us, it did indicate that those two soldiers may have been executed. So if there's hurt from the language used then we regret that, clearly, that was never the intention," Mr Ingram said.
"But it was to point up ... our knowledge about the depravity, the brutality of that regime."
General Sir Mike Jackson, Chief of the General Staff, revealed for the first time that the Republican Guard was now "pinned down" by coalition forces. "The Iraqi forces in the south are fixed. By that we mean that they are pinned down, their ability to manoeuvre is frankly very little indeed," he said.
General Jackson also called for an early end to the firefighters' dispute so that the Army can concentrate its resources on the Iraqi conflict. He told BBC Radio 4's PM programme: "It is not affecting the war right now, but I would urge very much those concerned to bring this dispute to a swift end.
"Of course the Army and the other two services also involved in firefighting will do what is required of them, but this is not a military capability that is being used; this is manpower and some skills which we have given them by training," he said. "I hope the dispute will be brought to an end very quickly."
A source at the Fire Brigades Union pointed out that the 19,000 troops who had been on stand-by to provide emergency cover in the event of another strike had now been stood down by the Government.
"People are trying to blame us for the fact that [the United States Defence Secretary] Donald Rumsfeld's military expertise is not worth a light," he said.
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