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October 29, 2004, Friday MORE SCOTS FACE LINE OF FIRE Gethin Chamberlain Defence Correspondent TWO Scottish regiments have been warned they may have to take over from the Black Watch in the so-called "Triangle of Death" and a third is being lined up for a move to Iraq while the government presses ahead with its plans to take the axe to the Scottish infantry. The Scots Guards have been told they must be ready to take over south of Baghdad when the Black Watch pulls out just before Christmas, while the Royal Scots - one of the two regiments that will disappear under the cuts - will move to the highest state of readiness on 3 January, ready to be deployed at short notice to assist British forces in Iraq. Army sources say the Highlanders, currently training in Germany, are almost certain to find themselves deployed to Iraq early next year. The potential deployments emerged as figures suggested the civilian death toll since the start of the war had risen above 100,000. A study by United States public health experts, published in The Lancet, said many had died as a result of aerial bombing, and casualties in and around Fallujah could push the toll far higher. The dangers faced by the Black Watch in their new location were driven home yesterday when gunmen opened fire on a police station near Hillah, killing one officer and wounding another. Police fired back, injuring one attacker and arresting another in Mussayab, in the area where the Black Watch are due to patrol. The decision to deploy so many Scots regiments at a time when their future is hanging in the balance will increase pressure on the government and raise further questions about the justification of its policy. Hundreds more people signed up yesterday to The Scotsman's campaign to save the regiments by filling in a coupon - reprinted in today's paper - or logging on to www.thescotsman.co.uk/ regiments. Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, writing in The Scotsman yesterday, insisted the cuts had nothing to do with financial pressures on the army, but senior officers say the government argument is nonsensical and no-one would voluntarily cut infantry numbers under current circumstances - unless forced to do so to pay for other services. As the Black Watch continued their deployment to Hillah yesterday, Jack McConnell again resisted calls to throw his weight behind the campaign to save the regiments. The First Minister said he would prefer to see Scottish regiments retain their identities, but accepted they might have to be amalgamated in a super-regiment. A spokeswoman for the First Minister angered opposition politicians when she said Mr McConnell "does not have a view on the issue". David McLetchie, Scottish Tory leader, said: "He must be the last politician in Scotland to be clueless and viewless on this issue. How can he write to Geoff Hoon as Scotland's First Minister to make Scotland's case and not have a view?" The announcement on the future of the regiments has been brought forward to the end of next month after a meeting of the Army Board - made up of the army's most senior officers - on Wednesday rubber-stamped proposals from the Council of Scottish Colonels to amalgamate the King's Own Scottish Borderers and the Royal Scots and to roll them and the other Scottish regiments into a single unit. Those fighting to save the regiments say the decision to bring the announcement forward has been taken to minimise the potential political damage to the government of a long-running campaign.
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................................................................................................................. Copyright ©2004 Gethin Chamberlain. All rights reserved. |
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