British base in Basra rocketed

BASRA / IraqiNews.com: The Multinational forces in southern Iraq said the British base at the Basra international airport came under Katyusha rockets attack on Thursday night, but caused no casualties or damage. “Four Katyusha rockets hit the British base at the Basra international airport without casualties,” the spokesperson for the MNF in southern Iraq, Captain Jacklin Hackett, told IraqiNews.com news agency. British soldiers were stationed in one base – the Basra International Airport, 25 km northeast of the province – after handing over the former presidential palaces, which they took as a military base, to the Iraqi forces. The British forces in the oil-rich port city of Basra, 590 km south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, keep 4,100 troops within the MNF in Iraq. Britain was the United States’ prime ally in the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. Ceremonies to hand over security responsibilities in Basra province from the British forces to the Iraqi authorities took place at the Basra International Airport in December 2007. SH (S) 1