RED CAPS: DON'T KILL US. WE'VE WIVES AND KIDS
By Tom Newton Dunn, Defence Correspondent In Basra, Grant Hodgson In Majar Al-Kabir And Mark Ellis, Foreign Editor
Daily Mirror
June 27, 2003
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SOLDIERS shot in the Iraqi police station massacre begged to be spared by showing their killers pictures of their loved ones, it emerged last night.

A witness at the scene said the military police wanted to demonstrate to their captors: "Look we are just like you...we have wives and children too."

Their pleas were in vain - there was no mercy. Three of the six who died were found together slumped against a corner of a 15ft by 8ft room at the police base at Majar al-Kabir in southern Iraq.

Victim Paul Long, a 24-year-old corporal whose picture was released yesterday, had an 11-month-old son.

More detail was also building up of alleged provocation of townspeople during weapons-search patrols in the days before Tuesday's carnage in the Shi'ite Muslim area.

Paras carrying out the checks, it is claimed, used dogs - which are not allowed in Muslim homes.

Plastic baton rounds may also have been fired on Tuesday, which Iraqis thought was live ammunition. A local policeman claimed four civilians were shot dead during street protests before the police station siege.

The three Red Caps found side by side there are believed to have surrendered in the face of a mob, only to be shot with their own weapons.

Firas Fassal, 26, a doctor who saw the aftermath of the massacre, said yesterday: "The three had all been killed by shots to the head.

"Two of them had bullet holes through their foreheads and the third had a bullet entry wound through his cheek.

"They could not have been shot from outside. I cannot judge for sure that they were executed, but they were definitely shot by someone who was in the room very close to them at the time."

There was no sign of their SA 80 rifles or any of their ammunition in the area where they died.

It now appears that all six Red Caps lost their lives during the attack on the police station.

Dr Fassal said it seemed that Sgt Simon Hamilton-Jewell - who had spurned the offer of an escape route - was first to die.

His body was beside a door leading into the room where his three colleagues were.

Dr Fassal said: "He had many bullets to the chest and looked as if he had died fighting. He was by far the worst injured.

"Two others were lying inside the room a metre away and they had chest and leg wounds."

All six were wearing the same desert uniform as soldiers from 1 Para - and similar berets.

That could have led their attackers to believe they were the same group who had carried out the controversial gun searches.

The military police were there to train local officers.

Ali Al-Ateya, 36, a journalist from the American-funded Arabic-language station Radio Sawa, spoke of the last moments of the Colchester-based Red Caps.

He said: "As they made their way to the police station, they were shouting into their headsets.

"They were trying to tell their colleagues at base that they were in trouble. Help came too late."

Those who died with Sgt Hamilton-Jewell, 41, and Cpl Long were Cpl Russell Aston, 30, who had a 17-month-old daughter, Cpl Simon Miller, 21, L/Cpl Ben Hyde, 23, and L/Cpl Tom Keys, 20.

Mr Al-Ateya said: "Before they died, the British men even showed photographs in their pockets of families, children and wives.

"They wanted to show them, `We are just like you, look, we have wives and children too'.

"They hoped this would save them from the killers, but it did not. They were not shown mercy.

"The people who did this are animals, but they are a minority. Not all in Majar are like this."

However, military chiefs in Basra were thinking the unthinkable - that the men had been killed by "ordinary" Iraqis, not Saddam loyalists or Iranian Islamic extremists. Tribesmen from Majar al-Kabir were suspects, a forces' spokesman said.

They were furious at alleged Para searches of homes with dogs and fears that their women-folk would be "body-searched" - another huge taboo. Army spokesman in Basra, Lt Col Ronnie McCourt, told the Daily Mirror: "So far, we have been told there were no foreigners or Saddam Hussein loyalists present.

"The people we are looking for could well be residents, we think."

The Army appeared to have agreed to suspend weapons searches after an angry meeting with Iraqi leaders on Monday.

Then army patrols were spotted the following day and protests spiralled out of control. Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said yesterday he feared more confusion could have been caused by the use of plastic baton rounds.

Iraqis might not have known the difference between the plastic bullets and live ammunition, he said.

One witness said soldiers first fired rubber bullets and then live ammunition into a crowd during street protests before the siege.

Local policeman Abbas Faddhel said four civilians were shot dead. Abu Al-Kareem Al-Mahmood, the chief clansman of Majar al-Kabir, said: "People thought they were being insulted by the British every time they carried out searches.

"Some people said their wives and children had been insulted and this anger built up."

He blamed a minority of Saddam loyalists for stirring up trouble.

Another Iraqi elder, Ali al-Rubayee, said it would be "impossible" for the killers to be handed over. "It was chaos, there were many people," he added. The town is now a no-go area.

At their Red Caps' Colchester garrison, senior padre Rev Nick Cook said: "The mood here is one of shock, horror, a lot of distress.

"Jesus said love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Personally, I find that hard to do, sometimes."

The widow of Tyneside-born Cpl Long lived at the base with their son. His mother Patricia was being comforted by son Byron, 20 and daughter Maria, 31, at the family home in South Shields. She said: "The Army was his life."

Paul joined in April 1999 after two years with the Territorials.

Former neighbour Michelle Bell, 33, said: "The real tragedy is that he has only been married a short time and has a very young son."

 m.ellis@mirror.co.uk

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