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6-11-2004 Scotsman Bigley's killers claim Black Watch suicide bombing By Ian Johnston and Gethin Chamberlain THE killers of the British hostage Kenneth Bigley last night claimed responsibility for the suicide attack on the Black Watch in Iraq in which three soldiers died. The followers of the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said they carried out the bombing on Thursday, according to a statement on an Islamic website. Iraq's most wanted group made the chilling claim as a bitter political row broke out at home over the regiment's re-deployment in support of American troops. The group's message said: "A lion of the Martyrs' Brigade managed to ram into a British military convoy south of Baghdad. "We will strike with an iron fist at anyone who enters our country, fighting us," the statement added. The claim could not be verified but appeared on a website often used by militants to post such statements. The Ministry of Defence refused to comment on the message. Zarqawi is believed to have killed Mr Bigley and the two Americans kidnapped with him last month. The militant's group, formerly known as Tawhid and Jihad, has links with al-Qaeda and is believed to be responsible for numerous car-bombings and the beheading of foreign hostages. On a day when the 12-year-old daughter of Sergeant Stuart Gray broke down while laying flowers in her father's memory there were vitriolic political exchanges, in particular between Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, and the SNP leader, Alex Salmond. The veteran nationalist said "a tide of anger" was sweeping across Scotland, and repeated accusations that the Black Watch's deployment into the Sunni Triangle near Baghdad had been a political favour to the US president, George Bush. A furious Mr Hoon said Mr Salmond's remarks "demonstrate clearly there are no depths to which he will not sink", and accused him of trying to score political points over the deaths of Sgt Gray, 31, Private Scott McArdle, 22, and Private Paul Lowe, 19, all from Fife. Meanwhile in Iraq, the Black Watch's commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel James Cowan said that while the regiment was "saddened" over the loss of their comrades in the suicide-bomb attack and ambush, they would "not be deterred from seeing our task through". The government also came under attack from relatives of the dead privates. Pte Lowe's brother Craig, 18, a serving soldier in the Black Watch currently in the UK, called for the urgent withdrawal of troops from Iraq to prevent the loss of any more lives in a war that his brother thought was "over nothing" apart from "money and oil". Pte McArdle's uncle, Martin McArdle, of Glenrothes, attacked Mr Bush and Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, for sending the troops into "a death trap", which he feared would become another Vietnam. Mr Salmond defended his comments, which clashed with parliamentary convention that MPs should simply offer condolences to the families after the death of British troops. He said: "My duty is to tell the truth, and I'm telling the truth as I see it. What I've got to say about Hoon and the Prime Minister is as nothing compared to what the families of the dead soldiers are saying about them. "There is sadness across Scotland about the loss of these men and there is anxiety about the future and safety of the rest of the [Black Watch] battle group. "But there is also a tide of anger sweeping across the country - anger at the war, anger at the political deployment of the battlegroup and anger at the future of a regiment facing amalgamation." The Defence Secretary responded angrily, insisting that UK military commanders ordered the battalion to Camp Dogwood, 30 miles south of Baghdad, after thorough consideration of a request from their American counterparts. "I cannot understand why he does this. I cannot understand why someone should seek to take political advantage about the tragic deaths of three brave men and their interpreter," Mr Hoon said. Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat MP whose North-East Fife seat is within the Black Watch's main recruitment area, also criticised Mr Salmond, saying the reaction to the deaths had been marked by "great sadness and a determination, with one notable exception, to make no effort to try and make any kind of political capital out of this". Brian Baxter, a sergeant major in the Black Watch until 15 months ago, is an organiser of the campaign to save the regiment from amalgamation into one Scottish "super-regiment" but said this was no time to make political points. Mr Baxter said he had known two of the men who were killed, Sgt Gray and Pte McArdle. "They were all right, just normal Jock Tamson's bairns," he said. Last month, General Sir Michael Walker, the Chief of Defence Staff, warned that the bitter debate over sending the regiment into the Sunni triangle would encourage the militants to concentrate attacks on British troops to try to undermine morale at home.
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................................................................................................................. Copyright ©2004 Gethin Chamberlain. All rights reserved. |
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