British troops return to southern town where colleagues were killed

Some 50 light and heavy armoured vehicles moved into the town under the scorching midday sun, as four attack helicopters hovered overhead. The soldiers were met by a group of Shiite clerics and prominent town officials in a peaceful ceremony aimed at putting the acrimony in the past, and quell Iraqis' concern that the British planned to take revenge on the town.

“We are not here for retribution. We are here to reestablish communications and get the (rebuilding) process back on the road,” said Capt. Guy Winter, a 30-year-old from Dover, England who made initial contact with the Iraqi delegation.

Sheikh Abu Salam Al Saedi, a cleric from the large southern town of Basra who came to Majar Al Kabir to greet the British, also promised a new start.

“The people want peace, not surrender — peace with honour, not with disorder,” he said, adding that the Iraqi side wanted “to put this incident in the past.”

Nearly 200 townspeople looked on as the two sides met at an intersection near the main marketplace in Majar Al Kabir, 290 kilometres southeast of Baghdad.

The deaths occurred Tuesday, when a demonstration by Iraqis angered at what they felt were inappropriate searches turned violent, with protesters throwing rocks at troops. Outnumbered British soldiers fired rubber bullets, then switched to live ammunition as the situation got out of hand. Five Iraqi civilians and two British soldiers were killed during the demonstration.

Later, British soldiers took refuge at a nearby police station, surrounded by a group of about 20 gunmen. The troops were overwhelmed, and four more British troops were killed.

On the same day, eight British soldiers were injured in the town by people angered at what they felt were heavy-handed weapons searches in Majar Al Kabir in which soldiers used dogs and entered women's bedrooms in defiance of Muslim sensibilities.

Late Thursday, a British plane dropped leaflets in the area stating that US-led coalition forces regretted the loss of life among Iraqi civilians but added that coalition forces were not behind the incident.

The clashes raised fears that violence was spreading to previously calm regions of Iraq, despite assurances by coalition commanders that they are mopping up resistance.