Soldiers find newborn girl in box of weapons

TWO British soldiers patrolling the streets of Basra were praised by their commanding officers yesterday after they saved the life of a newborn Iraqi girl.

After cornering five terror suspects in a house deep inside the war-ravaged city, the young squaddies, along with two of their colleagues, began to search the premises.

Within minutes they discovered a dusty 3ft-long padlocked metal box containing a cache of deadly weapons.

Incredibly, lying among the rocket-propelled grenade launchers, AK47s and ammunition, wrapped up in a blanket, was "Rose" barely two days old and abandoned by her mother.

She was no longer breathing, but Private Damien Kenny and Private Jonathan Hunt and began giving her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Then, after several agonising minutes, she squeezed Pte Kenny's finger and began to breathe again.

"We were expecting to find weapons hidden in the box," said Pte Kenny, 18, from Wigan. "We couldn't believe it when we saw it was a baby girl."

Their commanding officer, Major Paul Davies, said that without the intervention of his men the baby would have died.

"It is a testament to the professionalism and adaptability of my men that they dealt with this situation so effectively. I hope this young girl will have a happier future." The soldiers also found the baby's mother who identified her daughter. Both are now in hospital. "It is unclear why the child had been placed in the locked container, although it has been established the baby had been born prematurely," the spokesman added.

The troops named the baby Rose after the red rose of the Lancashire regiment. Lieutenant Craig Rogers, in charge of the unit which found Rose, said the baby's father had been arrested. He said: "The mother said that it was the father who put the young child inside the ammunition box. We were lucky to find it in time."