The villagers of Gul Ashab paid a terrible price yesterday for the welcome they have given to British forces distributing aid in the village.Jack Fairweather reports from Gul Ashab.
As dusk fell, five mortar rounds fell on the centre of the village, injuring one pregnant woman and several others in what appears to have been deliberate targeting by Iraqi militia forces. The woman lost her leg in the incident.
Gunmen armed with rocket-propelled grenades were reported to have set up an ambush for British forces if they responded to the fire. Wary British officers responded only with illumination flares to scare them away.
Capt Justin Stenhouse, of A squadron, Queens Dragoon Guards, who had been overseeing the supply of aid to the village earlier in the day, said: "This is a cowardly and atrocious act. At least the militia behind this could have had the courage to fire at us rather then targeting innocent civilians.
"We will find the people who did this, only we won't be walking into any ambush."
Yesterday, a senior British officer briefed troops on the need to "think like the enemy" as the siege of Basra enters its second week.
"We know that they have lost cohesion as a force and are now relying on surprise attacks. We've got them on the run."
While the mortar attack on the village is only one of many such attacks since the war began, it was the first to target civilians.
The sight of the smoking village, as fire burned uncontrollably for several hours where the rounds landed, could not have provided a greater contrast with the scene yesterday morning in Gul Ashab as British aid was distributed.
Unlike in towns further south and the scenes of rioting which accompanied the provision of food and water, villagers formed orderly queues and used their UN oil-for-food ration cards to receive their portion of aid for the 300 families in the village.
The village's four sheikhs stood back and nodded their approval.
"With this we can begin to rebuild out lives," said one of them. "We would like to thank the British for coming."
Last night, however, villagers were left cowering in their houses, too afraid to move and assess the wreckage.
A British soldier said: "What sort of monsters shell their own people.
"If we didn't know already, it's pretty clear why we're here now; to help the Iraqis get rid of these people."