"British trace missile in copter strike to Iran"

British trace missile in copter strike to Iran
By Sean Rayment
LONDON SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
Published March 4, 2007

LONDON -- A missile that brought down a Royal Air Force Lynx
helicopter and killed five British service members was smuggled into
Iraq by Iranian agents, an official inquiry into the attack will
reveal.
The Sunday Telegraph has learned that a British Army Board of
Inquiry (BOI) into the events surrounding the May attack will state
that the weapon, a shoulder-launched surface-to-air missile known as
an SA14 Strella, came from Iran.
The attack, which was responsible for the death of Flight Lt.
Sarah Mulvihill, the first British servicewoman to be killed on active
service since World War II, appears to provide further evidence of
Iran's direct involvement in the deaths of British troops serving in
Iraq.
A Defense Ministry spokesman declined to comment on the inquiry.
"The board of inquiry process has not yet been concluded. It would
be wrong to speculate about the cause of the crash until this process
has finished," a ministry spokesman said.
It is understood that the inquiry, which has assessed evidence
from military engineers and scientists, will conclude that the
aircraft was shot down with an Iranian SA14 missile. The inquiry,
which is conducted by senior air force and army officers, will deliver
its finding to defense chiefs next month.
The report also will reveal whether the helicopter's self-defense
systems were working properly and whether they provided adequate
protection from a missile fired from relatively short range.
Traditionally, the role of a military board of inquiry, which can
examine everything from the loss of a piece of equipment to the deaths
of servicemen, is not to attribute "blame" for a particular incident.
Instead, senior officers make recommendations to prevent another
similar incident.
The Foreign Office is expected to use the findings to step up
diplomatic pressure on the Iranian government, which has been asked to
crack down on units within its defense and security services believed
to be supplying weapons and bomb-making technology to insurgents in
Iraq.
Dozens of British soldiers have been killed in Iraq by improvised
explosive devices in the form of roadside bombs, thought to have
either been manufactured in Iran or by insurgents trained by the
Iranians.
Hundreds of thousands of Strellas were produced by the Soviet
Union in the 1970s and were used to equip armies throughout the Warsaw
Pact, Central Asia and the Middle East, including Syria and Iran. The
same weapon system is also thought to have been responsible for
bringing down several U.S. helicopters in Iraq.
Although the weapon is cheap to produce and easy to assemble,
operators need some skill to use it effectively, suggesting that the
missile was fired either by an Iranian agent or by someone who had
been trained by a skilled soldier.
The attack also claimed the life of the most senior British
officer to have been killed in the three-year conflict, Wing Cmdr.
John Coxen, 46, who was about to take over command of the British
helicopter fleet in southern Iraq.
The other three men killed were the pilot, Lt. Cmdr. Darren
Chapman, 40; his co-pilot, Capt. David Dobson, 27; and the door
gunner, Marine Paul Collins, 21.
The Lynx Mark 7 was traveling low over central Basra on a sortie
to familiarize Cmdr. Coxen with the dangers his pilots might face.
Although it was believed at first that the helicopter had been brought
down by a "lucky hit" from a rocket-propelled grenade, British troops
found discarded missile parts in a nearby building after the incident.

"Mike" wrote in message
news:repost.88401.1173235525.141777.49730@j27g2000 cwj.googlegroups.com...
British trace missile in copter strike to Iran
By Sean Rayment
LONDON SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
Published March 4, 2007

LONDON -- A missile that brought down a Royal Air Force Lynx
helicopter and killed five British service members was smuggled into
Iraq by Iranian agents, an official inquiry into the attack will
reveal.
The Sunday Telegraph has learned that a British Army Board of
Inquiry (BOI) into the events surrounding the May attack will state
that the weapon, a shoulder-launched surface-to-air missile known as
an SA14 Strella, came from Iran.
The attack, which was responsible for the death of Flight Lt.
Sarah Mulvihill, the first British servicewoman to be killed on active
service since World War II, appears to provide further evidence of
Iran's direct involvement in the deaths of British troops serving in
Iraq.
A Defense Ministry spokesman declined to comment on the inquiry.
"The board of inquiry process has not yet been concluded. It would
be wrong to speculate about the cause of the crash until this process
has finished," a ministry spokesman said.
It is understood that the inquiry, which has assessed evidence
from military engineers and scientists, will conclude that the
aircraft was shot down with an Iranian SA14 missile. The inquiry,
which is conducted by senior air force and army officers, will deliver
its finding to defense chiefs next month.
The report also will reveal whether the helicopter's self-defense
systems were working properly and whether they provided adequate
protection from a missile fired from relatively short range.
Traditionally, the role of a military board of inquiry, which can
examine everything from the loss of a piece of equipment to the deaths
of servicemen, is not to attribute "blame" for a particular incident.
Instead, senior officers make recommendations to prevent another
similar incident.
The Foreign Office is expected to use the findings to step up
diplomatic pressure on the Iranian government, which has been asked to
crack down on units within its defense and security services believed
to be supplying weapons and bomb-making technology to insurgents in
Iraq.
Dozens of British soldiers have been killed in Iraq by improvised
explosive devices in the form of roadside bombs, thought to have
either been manufactured in Iran or by insurgents trained by the
Iranians.
Hundreds of thousands of Strellas were produced by the Soviet
Union in the 1970s and were used to equip armies throughout the Warsaw
Pact, Central Asia and the Middle East, including Syria and Iran. The
same weapon system is also thought to have been responsible for
bringing down several U.S. helicopters in Iraq.
Although the weapon is cheap to produce and easy to assemble,
operators need some skill to use it effectively, suggesting that the
missile was fired either by an Iranian agent or by someone who had
been trained by a skilled soldier.
The attack also claimed the life of the most senior British
officer to have been killed in the three-year conflict, Wing Cmdr.
John Coxen, 46, who was about to take over command of the British
helicopter fleet in southern Iraq.
The other three men killed were the pilot, Lt. Cmdr. Darren
Chapman, 40; his co-pilot, Capt. David Dobson, 27; and the door
gunner, Marine Paul Collins, 21.
The Lynx Mark 7 was traveling low over central Basra on a sortie
to familiarize Cmdr. Coxen with the dangers his pilots might face.
Although it was believed at first that the helicopter had been brought
down by a "lucky hit" from a rocket-propelled grenade, British troops
found discarded missile parts in a nearby building after the incident.



Mike;

Thanks for this one!


Unfortunately, it is likely to upset the libs that haunt this group...

Honu