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Hundreds of soldiers from the Black Watch have destroyed a Taleban stronghold after uncovering a network of tunnels that concealed bomb factories, the Ministry of Defence said. About 500 soldiers, including members of the Afghan National Army and Canadian experts, swooped into Howz-e-Maded in the Zhari district of Kandahar province in three waves of six Chinook helicopters.

The best friend of a fallen Black Watch soldier has mourned his death wearing a dress and stockings, to honour a pact made with his mate. Barry Delaney kneels weeping as mourners gather at Barnhill Cenetery for the funeral of Black Watch soldier Kevin Elliot.

On the frontline with British troops in Afghanistan As Afghanistan prepares for an election, award-winning photographer Sean Smith, stationed with British troops during Operation Panther's Claw, finds many soldiers becoming frustrated at the inexperience and lack of discipline of the Afghan National Army. guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 18 August 2009 video at link etc

A British sniper killed a Taliban leader with the longest-ever fatal bullet shot in Afghanistan - from nearly TWO KILOMETRES away. Corporal Christopher Reynolds, 25, camped on the roof of a shop for three days as he waited for the perfect conditions to shoot the terrorist commander. He calculated the range, wind and trajectory before pulling the trigger - and the bullet flew 1,853 metres before hitting the target in the chest. The warlord, known as 'Mula', is thought to be responsible for co-ordinating several attacks against British and American troops since the outbreak of war in 2001. Cpl Reynolds,...

A SCOTTISH soldier has been praised for making the longest recorded kill in Afghanistan after shooting a top Taliban fighter from almost a mile away. Corporal Christopher Reynolds took out the Afghan drug lord during some of the hardest fighting of the war so far. The 25-year-old, of 3 Scots, The Black Watch, kept watch on a shop rooftop for three days to eliminate the target. But he admitted the top-level Taliban fighter – known as Musa – was so far away it took him a couple of attempts to get the aim right. Initially Musa, who was with four...

A Scottish soldier has been praised for making the longest recorded kill in Afghanistan after shooting a top Taliban fighter from almost a mile away. Corporal Christopher Reynolds took out the Afghan drug lord during some of the hardest fighting of the war so far. The 25-year-old, of 3 Scots, The Black Watch, kept watch on a shop rooftop for three days to eliminate the target. But he admitted the top-level Taliban fighter – known as Musa – was so far away it took him a couple of attempts to get the aim right.

The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada will bid adieu to one of its own tomorrow in Montreal with a full military funeral for Cpl. Jason Patrick Warren, the 29-year-old reservist who was killed in Afghanistan on July 22. Quebec Lieutenant-Governor Lise Thibault will attend the service at 1 p.m. at the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul at Sherbrooke and Redpath Sts. Warren had been with the land forces' primary reserve since 1999. He had been previously deployed with the Canadian Forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina. He is the first member of the historic regiment to die in the...

Scots resent the merging of their glorious infantry By John Keegan (Filed: 29/03/2006) The reorganisation of the Scottish Division of Infantry is the most sensitive of the Army reorganisations because of the strong local affiliations of the Scottish Infantry regiments. Not only is reorganisation involved. One of the six Scottish Infantry battalions is to be dispensed with, a move demanded by Gordon Brown to make funds available for social spending. The economy is required even though the Army is fighting a war in Iraq which is stretching the infantry to breaking point. The five surviving units are to become numbered...

The recent change of government in Canada reminded me of my family’s long ties to Canada. My great uncle served in World War I with the 42nd Rainbow Division’s artillery under a young Douglas MacArthur and served alongside soldiers from Canada, while my mother’s brother was a member of the New York State Police and its elite BCI unit and worked a number of cases with the RCMP. But it was my father who had the most intense relationship with the men from the Great White North.

. . . James McIvor has found an instance in the Civil War when the animosity between the Union and Confederate soldiers also lifted, if only for the length of a single song . . . As the opposing forces settled into battle lines near Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on December 30, 1862, the bands on each side played an evening concert for their respective comrades. The two concerts continued, unharmoniously enough, until, “as if by common consent,” recalled the Tennesseean, both took up “Home, Sweet Home.” The men on both sides soon joined together in singing the song. When it was...

SCOTLAND'S last surviving veteran of the First World War, and the country's oldest man, died peacefully at a nursing home yesterday aged 109 - severing the last tangible link between the nation and the 690,235 Scots who served in the Great War. Alfred Anderson was the last of the "Old Contemptibles" - the British expeditionary force which went to war in 1914 - and the last surviving witness of the historic Christmas truce when opposing troops declared a brief and unofficial ceasefire to play football and share drinks and cigarettes in the hell of no man's land. Mr Anderson served...

Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, will announce a comprehensive reorganisation of the Army today that will see at least 19 regiments, including the Black Watch, amalgamated or disbanded. The Executive Committee of the Army Board (ECAB) agreed earlier this week to get rid of single battalion famous-name regiments and amalgamate them into multi-battalion units. At the same time, it was expected to axe four infantry battalions, effectively getting rid of four single-battalion regiments, as part of the Northern Ireland "peace dividend". But amid anger at the loss of regimental heritage, and cuts in numbers that are widely regarded within the...

Dec. 6, 2004 Forward Operating Base Kalsu, Iraq -- After a month of hunting insurgents with the U.S. Marines south of Baghdad, the Black Watch battle group is heading home to the United Kingdom. Among the British army's most legendary units, the Scotland-based Black Watch capped a six-month tour in Iraq by redeploying from the southern city of Basra in late October and taking up positions alongside the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit in northern Babil province. The jocks, as they're affectionately known to their countrymen, made an immediate impact in their new battlespace, occupying key terrain near the Euphrates River...

Britain's National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has rejected allegations by Britain's top military officer that media reports are partly to blame for recent fatal attacks on British soldiers in Iraq. Chief of Defence Staff General Michael Walker has said that news reports about the redeployment of the Black Watch regiment within Iraq made it "easier" for insurgents to stage attacks The NUJ says that claim is absurd. "When generals turn round and start blaming reporters for their own mistakes, it is a sign they aren't doing their own jobs properly," union spokesman Tim Gopsill said. Four soldiers from an 850-strong...

Black Watch troops returned to the relative safety of Basra yesterday after a controversial month-long mission in Iraq’s "triangle of death", during which five of their comrades died. Relieved soldiers declared "mission accomplished" as the battle group convoy of more than 200 vehicles arrived at the Shaibah Logistics Base in the south of the country. They dedicated the success of their campaign to their comrades who died on the deployment to Camp Dogwood - four from suicide attacks and one in an accident. Amid the sadness, there was also delight after the MoD confirmed the soldiers would be in the...

Mission accomplished for Black Watch By David Harrison with the Black Watch on the eastern Euphrates (Filed: 26/11/2004) Black Watch soldiers stormed across the Euphrates river into a suspected insurgent stronghold yesterday, bursting into houses in the middle of the night and arresting scores of males aged 14 and over. More than 700 soldiers and 116 vehicles, including 42 Warrior armoured assault vehicles, were deployed in a raid that lasted 12 hours from the time they left their base at Camp Dogwood, 25 miles south-west of Baghdad. It was one of the largest offensives launched by British soldiers since the...

SOLDIERS of The Black Watch stormed a key insurgent stronghold in Iraq’s “Triangle of Death” yesterday, bursting into houses and arresting scores of males aged 14 and over. More than 700 soldiers and 116 vehicles, including 42 Warrior armoured assault vehicles, were deployed in an operation that lasted for 12 hours. It was the first large-scale assault by The Black Watch since the regiment moved from Basra to Camp Dogwood, 25 miles southwest of Baghdad. Soldiers in night-vision goggles kicked down doors and threw stun grenades into houses in the affluent farm and village area known as Kariguli on the...

Black Watch to join Iraq offensive 7.44AM, Wed Nov 24 2004 British soldiers are preparing to fight alongside US Marines and Iraqi troops in a major new offensive against insurgents. The Black Watch is joining forces to launch raids against rebel positions south of Baghdad. The operation - codenamed Plymouth Rock because it takes place around Thanksgiving - is billed as the biggest coalition offensive since the assault on Fallujah. More than 5,000 men supported by Cobra attack helicopters, F-18 hornets and F-16s, will launch surgical raids in and around the so-called Triangle of Death south of Baghdad. The 850...

Military police investigate shooting of 'suicide bomber' just after soldiers were maimed in attack A ROYAL Military Police investigation is under way after Black Watch soldiers shot dead the driver of a civilian car that was accelerating towards a checkpoint in central Iraq. The fatal shooting took place on November 7, minutes after two soldiers from the regiment lost their legs in a suicide bombing a mile down the road. Troops at the checkpoint near the Euphrates River in North Babil province, south of Baghdad, were already on heightened alert because of a suicide ambush that had killed three...

Hundreds of pro-Saddam rebels holed up in the Iraqi Triangle Of Death have been cornered by British troops. The Black Watch and Queen's Dragoon Guards based at Camp Dogwood have trapped a "hornet's nest" of militants trying to flee the Fallujah battle-zone. Military Intelligence officers now believe this is the reason for the ferocious attacks on the Dogwood-based Brits who have suffered daily rocket and mortar attacks. A British intelligence officer in Central Iraq revealed last night: "We have been surprised by the ferocity of the attacks but we are now able to fight back. "The force based at Dogwood...

British soldiers attached to the Black Watch fly in a helicopter on their way to set up a check-point in the desert near Camp Dogwood 25 miles south of Baghdad, Iraq Nov. 21st, 2004. British forces have stepped up security and changed their check-point procedures after incidents involving suicide bombers. (AP Photo/Damir Sagolj/pool) A British helicopter flies behind a group of Iraqis approaching a check-point set up by British soldiers attached to the Black Watch in the desert near Camp Dogwood 25 miles south of Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Nov. 21st, 2004 /(AP Photo/Damir Sagolj/pool) U.S. Army soldiers search for...

AN Australian who took over the controls of a helicopter in Iraq when the pilot was injured is embarrassed by all the attention his action has attracted. Group Captain Scott Watkins, 33, assumed control after the British army Lynx chopper took fire during a mission in support of the British Black Watch Battle Group south of Baghdad last week. The Sydney man, serving on exchange with the British Army, landed the aircraft at the Camp Dogwood coalition military base, south of Baghdad. "I'm a little bit embarrassed to have so much attention drawn to me because it is not as...

A BRITISH-BASED Saudi dissident has provoked anger by posting a video on his website that apparently shows the killing of three Black Watch soldiers by a suicide bomber. Muhammad al-Massari defended the contents of the video this weekend and vigorously justified the killing of British soldiers by Iraqi insurgents. The video, said to have been filmed by one of the bomber’s comrades, appears on a site called Tajdeed, which al-Massari runs from Wembley, north London. It shows a sport-utility vehicle driving along a road before exploding at the three soldiers’ checkpoint. Military vehicles and a helicopter are shown at the...

Three British soldiers, members of a famous regiment called the Black Watch, died recently in a car-bomb explosion in Iraq—the first British soldiers to perish this way in the terror-plagued country. For a few days, the British press and broadcasting media treated the event as if nothing else in the world mattered. The reaction was little short of hysterical, no doubt to the encouragement and pleasure of future car-bombers. As is now usual whenever tragedy strikes, the press and broadcasters went straight to the relatives of the victims and asked them what they felt. Quiet grief and private dignity have...

Black Watch soldier dies in Iraq A Black Watch soldier has been killed in an incident north of Camp Dogwood, the Ministry of Defence has said. A Warrior armoured vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb, killing one soldier. Two other soldiers were injured, but not seriously, an MoD statement said. It happened north of the UK battle group's base at Camp Dogwood 20 miles, (32km) from Baghdad. On Sunday, two bomb disposal experts were injured by a suicide car bomb and three died in an attack on Thursday. The MoD statement said: "The Warrior left the road, its wheels...

A Black Watch soldier killed in Iraq tonight was the victim of a roadside bomb, the Ministry of Defence confirmed. Another two men from the Scots regiment were injured in the attack on a Warrior armoured vehicle to the north of their Camp Dogwood base, the MoD said. The pair, who were not seriously injured, were airlifted by a US helicopter to a military hospital in Baghdad. Their Warrior swerved off the road when its wheels on one side were destroyed in the attack, carried out at 18.30 local time. The powerful blast was apparently detonated by insurgents using a...

AMERICAN forces last night began a battle to the death against Iraqi rebels in Fallujah. Warplanes pounded rebel-held areas of the city as US Marines fought fierce clashes with heavily-armed insurgents on its outskirts. Witnesses reported heavy fighting on the eastern and western fringes of Fallujah - including around a bridge over the River Euphrates. U.S. forces also took over the main hospital just outside the city as part of Operation Phantom Fury - an offensive expected to last two weeks. Earlier about 350 Black Watch squaddies took up blocking positions on the east bank of the Euphrates. The...

Press Association Mon 8 Nov 2004 printer friendly printer friendly 1:49am (UK) US Begins Fallujah Assault By PA Reporters US forces stormed key areas of Fallujah early today, in what appeared to be the first stage of the long-expected assault on the rebel stronghold. The offensive came hours after two Black Watch soldiers were seriously injured in a suicide bombing while on patrol in the notorious “triangle of death”. The initial attacks on Fallujah began after the Iraqi government declared 60 days of emergency rule throughout most of the country, as militants dramatically escalated attacks, killing at least 30 people,...

IN THE early hours of yesterday, guided only by the night vision goggles strapped to their helmets, a company of Black Watch soldiers walked silently through the desert hoping for a small success story at the end of a grim week. Their objective was a group of houses on the west side of the Euphrates where, according to intelligence reports, heavy guns and other weapons were being stored. The soldiers surrounded it, knocked on the door, and politely but forcefully made their entry. Two hours later, they climbed back into their Warrior armoured vehicles as dawn was breaking - with...

Paul Lowe, right, with cousin Barry, left, and brother Craig. Paul was killed two days ago. Picture: Tim Ockenden/ PA THE killers of the British hostage Kenneth Bigley last night claimed responsibility for the suicide attack on the Black Watch in Iraq in which three soldiers died. The followers of the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said they carried out the bombing on Thursday, according to a statement on an Islamic website. Iraq’s most wanted group made the chilling claim as a bitter political row broke out at home over the regiment’s re-deployment in support of American troops. On...

The three Black Watch soldiers killed in a suicide attack in Iraq have been named. Sergeant Stuart Gray, 31, Private Paul Lowe, 19, Private Scott McArdle, 22, who all came from Fife, Scotland, died in the blast at a vehicle checkpoint. The car bomb, which also claimed the life of an Iraqi interpreter and injured eight other soldiers, was the first suicide attack to kill British troops in Iraq. Their commanding officer vowed to continue patrolling high risk areas. Lieutenant Colonel James Cowan said his soldiers would not be deterred from carrying out their fight against terrorists. He confirmed that...

Tony Blair today praised the "extraordinary and heroic job" being done by the Black Watch in Iraq after the death of three Scottish soldiers in a suicide bomb attack south of Baghdad. But the depth of feeling in Scotland itself over the redeployment of a Black Watch battle group was shown by comments from one of the dead soldier's brothers - himself a Black Watch private - who called President Bush "an a***hole" for starting a "war over nothing". The three dead men were named this morning as Sergeant Stuart Gray, 31, Private Paul Lowe, 19, and Private Scott McArdle,...

Three die, eight injured as fears grow for safety of British troops at Camp Dogwood Richard Norton-Taylor Friday November 5, 2004 The Guardian Three soldiers from the Black Watch were killed by a suicide bomber yesterday in the first fatal attack on British troops since their fiercely debated deployment, at America's request, to a new base south of Baghdad. A civilian Iraqi interpreter employed by the regiment also died in the bombing at a vehicle checkpoint. It was the first suicide attack against British troops since last year's invasion but one senior defence source warned last night that it could...

British troops were controversially redeployed to Camp Dogwood Three Black Watch troops have been killed and a number of others injured in an attack by insurgents in Iraq. The deaths happened in the area patrolled by the battle group, but no more details have been released. The 850-strong force has been attacked repeatedly since it arrived at Camp Dogwood, 20 miles from Baghdad, on Friday, after a request from the US. An Iraqi translator was also feared dead, the BBC's Ben Brown said. Some 73 UK military personnel have died in Iraq. According to pool reporters at the Black Watch...

     Black Watch Battle Group redeployment    Troops from the Black Watch Battle Group began redeploying to a new area of operations within Multi-National Force (West) on 27 October 2004. As well as armoured infantry from the 1st Battalion The Black Watch, the battle group includes an armoured reconnaissance capability provided by B Squadron, Queen's Dragoon Guards, elements of 40 Commando Royal Marines, and supporting specialists from across the Army, including the Royal Engineers, Royal Logistic Corps, Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers, and Royal Military Police. The road move was supported by vehicle transporters from the US Army's 2123rd Transport Company.The...

ISTANBUL: A five-man commando team of alleged left-wing extremists hurled Molotov cocktails and tried to set off a home-made explosive device outside the Beyoglu courthouse in central Istanbul early on Thursday, press photographers at the scene said. The five men, reportedly militants of the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), their faces covered with red bandanas, hung up a placard protesting against prison conditions outside the courthouse, the photographers said. They then hurled Molotov cocktails through the building’s windows, starting a blaze that was quickly put out, and set fire to an LPG bottle outside the courthouse that was extinguished...

Senior officers with the Black Watch battle group sent north to replace American soldiers believe that the Government agreed to send them there without properly understanding the risks the troops face. They said the United States marines they were replacing had suffered more than 200 casualties, including nine dead, since July. "We expect every lunatic terrorist from miles around to descend on us like bees to honey," a high-ranking officer said in an e-mail home this week. Speaking at Basra before boarding an aircraft, 19-year-old Pte Manny Lynch, from Fife, admitted that he was nervous. "We have controlled the situation...

EXCLUSIVE Iraq is just another job Our pride ... brave troops of the Black Watch attend Sunday servicePictures: LES GALLAGHER           From GRAEME DONOHOE at Black Watch HQ in Shaibah THE Black Watch troops heading for Iraq’s so-called triangle of death insisted yesterday it was an HONOUR.And their commanding officer declared: “Frankly this regiment beat Napoleon, beat the Kaiser and it beat Hitler.“For the jocks of the Black Watch this is just the latest chapter in our history — and just another job to be done.”Lt Col James Cowan paid tribute to his troops’ courage as...

Black Watch soldiers at their last Sunday service in Basra yesterday. Lawless Babil will be the backdrop for the next one Black Watch prays and prepares for new fight “LET us pray,” said the chaplain of Black Watch and, as if on cue, a dull boom sounded over the desert. It was a roadside bomb, they told us later, the kind that goes off from time to time in southern Iraq, planted by insurgents and exploding without injury in a mushroom of dust. Dressed in their sand-coloured Tam O’Shanters, standing in an open-air chapel formed by Warrior armoured cars,...

The US has welcomed a decision by the UK to redeploy troops to central Iraq after it asked for assistance. Five hundred Black Watch soldiers and 350 support personnel will move from Basra to the US sector in central Iraq, but remain under British control. US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher praised Britain's support, saying it demonstrated "the kind of role that Britain is prepared to play". Defence chief Gen Michael Walker said the troops would be home for Christmas. The redeployment was announced by Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon on Thursday after ministers agreed to the US request, based on...

Warning from kidnappers not to send Black Watch to Baghdad The Iraqi kidnappers of British hostage Margaret Hassan have warned Tony Blair not to send Black Watch soldiers into Baghdad. The threat comes as video of Mrs Hassan pleading for her life was released. Despite this the troops could be on the move to Central Iraq within the next few hours. Military experts say the battalion will now put the political arguments behind them and get on with the job. Video tape of a hauntingly familiar scene was released to the media. Aid worker Margaret Hassan, taken hostage in Baghdad...

Hoon confirms Iraq troop movement Hundreds of British soldiers will be redeployed further into central Iraq in response to a US request, the defence secretary has confirmed. Geoff Hoon told the House of Commons the deployment of about 850 troops and support staff would last "weeks rather than months". Soldiers from the Black Watch regiment will move from their base in southern Iraq to near the capital, Baghdad. Mr Hoon said the decision was based on military advice. "After careful evaluation, the chiefs of staff have advised me that UK forces are able to undertake the proposed operation, that there...

A MONTH ago, in preparation for covering the on-off prospect that is January’s Iraqi elections, I attended a hostile-environment training course in Hereford run by ex-SAS men. Amid the tips and pointers on how to dress a gunshot wound, how to spot a car-bomber, and what little one can do if kidnapped, there was a brief rundown on the three kinds of men with guns out there: professional armies, such as the Brits; semi-professional, like the fledging new Iraqi army, and unprofessional, like just about everybody else. The Americans, despite being the biggest and the best-equipped, were not put into...

A column of trucks carrying Warrior armoured vehicles was seen leaving the British base in Basra today. Its destination was unknown. A sweep through the city of Iskandariyah, about 30 miles south of Baghdad, rounded up 87 people suspected of terrorist activities on Monday, said the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit. Four of the detainees were believed to have attacked the joint forces earlier in the day. Later during the operation, a suspicious vehicle exploded as the Iraqi-US teams went through neighbourhoods. No injuries were reported. In nearby Yusufiyah, Marines detained another 10 suspected insurgents. Those arrests came one day after...

BLACK DAY FOR SCOTS ARMED FORCES Jul 22 2004 DEFENCE SPENDING REVIEW By Pippa Crerar THOUSANDS of Scots military jobs - and one historic Scottish army regiment - face the axe. Last night the Black Watch emerged as most likely for the chop in the biggest armed forces cuts for a generation. And Scotland's other five infantry regiments will be amalgamated into two - possibly the Highland and Lowland regiments. The father of Black Watch lance corporal Barry Stephen, one of the first soldiers killed in Iraq, said the regiment had been stabbed in the back. Alistair Stephen added: 'It...

Fury as famous regiments go into Hoon's melting potBy Michael Smith, Defence Correspondent(Filed: 16/07/2004) The Army is to undergo its most radical reform since the 1870s with all 19 famous-name infantry units amalgamated into multi-battalion regional regiments, it was disclosed yesterday. The move is likely to cause outrage among supporters of the single-battalion regiments, in particular those such as the Green Howards, the Highlanders and the Black Watch, which face the axe. Many believe that the generals have caved in to Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, who has advocated similar plans since shortly after his appointment. But Gen Sir Mike...

Key points: 600 Scottish troops ordered to Iraq, claims 3000 more troops to join them Black Watch to replace 1st Battalion Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders in July Shadow defence secretary questions if troops were adequately trained Key Quote: "It remains the case that we, with our coalition partners, are considering the levels and disposition of forces required in Iraq in the months ahead, to support the sovereign interim government of Iraq through the process leading to the election of a transitional assembly and government early in 2005." - Geoff Hoon Story in full: GEOFF Hoon, the Defence Secretary, yesterday ordered...

MORE than 2,000 Royal Marines will soon be on the way to the Iraqi hotspot town of Najaf and other positions in the centre of the country, it was confirmed last night. In a big expansion of Britain’s role in Iraq, Royal Marines from 3 Commando Brigade and also The Black Watch Regiment have been put on short-notice standby for Iraq. They are expected to deploy early next month. The first indication that the Government was nearing a decision on expanding Britain’s role in Iraq came from Tony Blair in the Commons yesterday, when he said that discussions were under...

Sandstorms plagued the Black Watch, with sand getting into food, drinking water and machinery and coating any uncovered portion of skin with a hard-to-remove grime. 'After days of waiting, war came suddenly ... we were scrabbling for gas masks, jumping into trenches and troops were filled with a mixture of fear and excitement, wondering if they would ever come back' BATHED in the light of a moon not quite full, the tanks and armoured vehicles stretched out in columns across the desert resembled, at first glance, some picture from a child’s story-book of great and strange and unfamiliar beasts...

HE WAS carried on the shoulders of weeping comrades, a band of brothers who were clearly desolated by his loss, but comforted in the knowledge that war inevitably claims the bravest and the best first. In that belief, there was great comfort to be found in Perth yesterday as the city gave its final salute to Lance Corporal Barry "Baz" Stephen, a soldier who wore the blue bonnet and red hackle with honour. L-Cpl Stephen, 31, of the 1st Battalion Black Watch, was, in the words of those he left behind, the bravest - the only Scottish soldier to die...