News Search Search this site or the web powered by FreeFind Site search Web search Story archive		29-8-2003 Scotsman Scots TA soldier is killed in Iraqi ambush By Gethin Chamberlain A YOUNG British part-time soldier was killed yesterday when his convoy was ambushed by a crowd of Iraqis angry at the arrest of a popular local leader. Fusilier Russell Beeston, 26, died when his convoy was lured into an ambush in the southern Iraqi town of Ali Ash Sharqi. Trapped, the soldiers, from the King's Own Scottish Borderers and the 52nd Lowland Brigade, fired warning shots over the heads of the crowd, only for the crowd to respond with bullets and rocket-propelled grenades. He fell, fatally injured, and although his colleagues tried to tend his wounds while under fire, they could do nothing to save his life. Fusilier Beeston, from Govan, was based at the Territorial Army Centre in Glasgow. He is the 50th British soldier to lose his life since the start of the war in Iraq. His family said they were devastated by the loss. "Russell was a soldier doing his duty in Iraq, and he will be sadly missed by all his family," they said in a statement. News of his death coincided with the funeral of Private Jason Smith, 32, who was also part of the 52 Lowland Regiment Territorial Army Battalion. He died in southern Iraq on 13 August, from suspected heat exhaustion, and the funeral took place at Teviot Parish Church in his home town of Hawick yesterday. Elsewhere in Iraq yesterday four US soldiers were wounded when a bomb exploded in Fallujah, west of Baghdad. The commander of US forces in Iraq, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, said there was no need for more American troops but he would welcome international forces as a matter of a commitment to the pacification and rebuilding of Iraq.
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