Britain denies its soldiers missing in Basra

LONDON (AFP) Mar 29, 2003
A British military spokesman said Saturday that no British troops had gone missing overnight in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, in a reaction to media reports that up to five had been captured.

"I can confirm that we've just had reports that we have no British soldiers missing," Group Captain Al Lockwood, speaking from the allied command centre in Qatar, told BBC television.

Britain's defence ministry in London told AFP it was investigating reports of missing soldiers.

Basra saw fighting between US-British troops and Iraqi forces throughout Friday night and Saturday morning, according to a correspondent for Qatar-based Arabic-language television Al-Jazeera in the city, which is 500 kilometres (300 miles) southeast of Baghdad.

WAR.WIRE