Blair's 'horror' over TV footage of dead soldiers

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Tony Blair today expressed his "horror" at video footage of two dead British soldiers shown by the Arab satellite TV network al-Jazeera.

After Mr Blair arrived in Washington for talks with US President George Bush, his spokesman said: "The Prime Minister's reaction was horror, both at the deaths and at the fact that the pictures were being shown."

This morning the commander of UK forces in the Gulf, Air Marshal Brian Burridge, described as "deplorable" the decision to broadcast the footage. "All media must be aware of the limits of taste and decency," he said, adding that it was "flagrant breach" of the Geneva Convention.

The soldiers, attached to the Desert Rats, the 7th Armoured Brigade, were listed as missing on Sunday in the area of Zubayr, near Basra. They were shown lying on the ground with bloodstained uniforms and arms outstretched.The deaths of the two men, officially designated last night as "missing believed killed", bring the total of British fatalities since the war began to 22.

The video, which is believed to have been smuggled out of southern Iraq to the Qatar-based station, is the second piece of film showing dead soldiers to have been broadcast by al-Jazeera. The station can be viewed by subscribers to satellite television in Britain.

The video appeared to have been shot shortly after the soldiers had been killed and also showed a captured unmanned Phoenix aerial reconnaissance drone, the trailer on which it had been carried, and the Army Land Rover to which the trailer had been attached. The drones are used for artillery spotting and surveillance.

Jubilant Iraqis in civilian clothes were shown on top of the Land Rover, which had been turned on its side. British officials confirmed last night that troops had subsequently recovered the Land Rover but that it had been burnt out by the time they arrived. The soldiers had vanished.

The video also showed two live captives in civilian clothes, both black and possibly Americans, one in dreadlocks and the other in early middle age. British officials said that they had no knowledge of who the men were or whether they were British servicemen.

An earlier piece of Iraqi film broadcast on Sunday by al-Jazeera showed dead American soldiers and interviews with captive members of a US supply convoy that ran into an ambush, provoking similar protests from Washington.

Last night the Ministry of Defence said it was "shocked and appalled that the Iraqi regime has released TV pictures that claim to show two dead military personnel. This is a flagrant breach of the Geneva Convention.

"We have yet to formally identify the men but it is probable that they are both personnel currently listed as missing. Next of kin have been informed that the men have been listed as missing believed killed."

The statement said the MoD had protested in the strongest terms to al-Jazeera at the showing of the pictures and added: "We call on all other media outlets not to become tools of Iraqi propaganda by rebroadcasting such material." The MoD is keen to be sensitive in identifying those killed in the war so that relatives can be informed before details are released to the media.

A 19-year-old tank crewman due to marry his childhood sweetheart when he returned home has become the youngest British victim so far of the war. Trooper David Clarke died when his Challenger 2 was hit by a round from a second British tank in a "friendly fire" incident on Monday. He had planned to spread his grandmother's ashes once the conflict was finished, having missed her funeral while on military service.

The family of the teenager, from Littleworth, Staffordshire, who joined the Queen's Royal Lancers a year ago, said last night that they would now spread the remains together at a location in Wales. They were struggling to accept the reality that he had been killed by his comrades.

His father, Jeffrey, 41, said: "I don't feel angry, I just feel numb. The last time I spoke to him, he said to me, 'It looks like we are going in now'. He was looking forward to it."

The wife of the second crewman to die in the incident, Corporal Stephen Allbutt, 35, paid tribute to her husband as a loving father who had been devoted to his family.

Speaking at the family home in Stoke-on-Trent, Debbi Allbutt, 37, said: "Just before he left for the Gulf, he planted some daffodil bulbs in our garden as a surprise, so they'd come up while he was away. We loved each other deeply and words cannot express how much I'll miss him."