Blair leads tributes to dead soldiers

TRIBUTES were paid yesterday to the 12 soldiers killed when their helicopter crashed yesterday.

A debt of gratitude is owed to the eight Royal Marines killed and four US soldiers killed in the crash in the US-led assault on Iraq, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said.

The British troops from 3 Commando Brigade and US soldiers died when an American CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter crashed in Kuwait several miles south of the Iraqi border.

With a full-scale invasion of southern Iraq by US-led forces now under way, Mr Blair said the accident underlined the dangers facing troops. “We owe them an immense debt of gratitude and our thoughts and prayers are with their families.”

Blair said aside from the crash the military campaign appears to be going well.

Referring to the messages of condolence that he has received, Mr Blair said: “France has expressed its condolences to us in respect of those people who tragically lost their lives, and President Chirac sent me a personal note.

“Whatever the differences are, we can all come together in the spirit of sympathy at a time like this.”

Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon also voiced his sympathy for the families of the eight Marines and four US troops killed in the helicopter crash in Kuwait.

In a Commons statement, the defence secretary said the priority now was to identify those killed and inform their next-of-kin.

The crash was being investigated but was not caused by enemy action, he said. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who has warned there will be civilian casualties too, voiced his sympathy as he said he hoped for a short war. Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith also expressed sympathy to the families of the dead troops.

Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy called the troop deaths a terrible tragedy.

“Everyone will salute their courage and express deepest sympathy to their families,” he said.

Group Captain Al Lockwood, the main spokesman for British forces in Qatar said the crash of the CH- 46E helicopter at around 00.40GMT, about 10 miles south of the border with Iraq, was not the result of hostile fire but it would take some time to determine the exact cause.

US defence officials in Washington had first identified the dead as 12 Americans and four Britons, and then revised that to 12 British and four Americans.