Darren Jones pulled from canal that was first site liberated by second world war allies in 1944
A British soldier taking part in commemorations of the 75th anniversary of D-day has drowned at a historic second world war battle site in Normandy.
L/Cpl Darren Jones, 30, of the Royal Engineers was declared dead after firefighters pulled him from a canal at Bénouville near Pegasus Bridge, the first site liberated by the allies on 6 June 1944.
Continue reading...Deputy commander of anti-Isis coalition rebuts White House justification for sending troops
The top British general in the US-led coalition against Isis has said there is no increased threat from Iranian-backed forces in Iraq or Syria, directly contradicting US assertions used to justify a military buildup in the region.
Hours later however, his assessment was disowned by US Central Command in an extraordinary rebuke of an allied senior officer. A spokesman insisted that the troops in Iraq and Syria were on a high level of alert due to the alleged Iranian threat. The conflicting versions of the reality on the ground added to the confusion and mixed signals in a tense part of the Middle East.
Continue reading...Mathew Talbot of Coldstream Guards died on deployment in Malawi, MoD confirms
A British soldier has died while on anti-poaching operations in Malawi, the Ministry of Defence has said.
It is understood Mathew Talbot, of the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards, was on a patrol when he was killed by an elephant. He was on his first operational deployment when he died on 5 May, according to the MoD.
Continue reading...Government urged to make amends to ex-soldiers, who were underpaid and beaten
Pressure is mounting on the government to compensate and apologise to Britain’s last surviving African veterans of the second world war after three shadow secretaries of state called on their Conservative counterparts to acknowledge the systematic discrimination of colonial-era troops.
Labour’s Emily Thornberry, Nia Griffith and Dan Carden – the shadow foreign, defence and international development secretaries – demanded in a letter that Theresa May’s administration acknowledge the unfair treatment, launch an investigation into the matter, issue a formal apology and pay veterans compensation.
Continue reading...Document reveals more than 500,000 black soldiers were underpaid in second world war
More than half a million black African soldiers who fought in the British army during the second world war were paid up to three times less than their white counterparts, a newly unearthed document has revealed, prompting calls for an investigation and the government to compensate surviving veterans.
The document, buried in Britain’s national archives, reveals how the government systematically discriminated against African soldiers, paying white personnel – even those living in African colonies and serving alongside African soldiers in British colonial units – far more than their black counterparts.
Continue reading...Attack comes after Trump said he would withdraw US troops as ‘we have defeated Isis’
Two British special forces soldiers have been seriously injured in a missile attack by the Islamic State (Isis) in Syria. The incident is thought to have happened on Saturday morning and the soldiers were airlifted by US forces for medical treatment.
Rudaw, a Kurdish news outlet, reported that the British soldiers were hurt in an attack on a Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) base in the town of Deir ez-Zor, in the east of the country.
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