Topic: Fijian soldier named as latest British fatality in Iraq

Team Infidel

Media: AFP
Byline: n/a
Date: 6 Sept 2006

Body:


LONDON, Sept 6, 2006 (AFP) - A British Army soldier killed by a roadside
bomb in Iraq this week was from the South Pacific island of Fiji, the
Ministry of Defence in London said Wednesday.

Gunner Samuela Vanua's death on Monday came after another Fijian, Ranger
Anare Draiva, was killed in a gun battle with Taliban insurgents in
Afghanistan last Friday.

Vanua, 27, was a member of 58 (Eyre's) Battery, 12 Regiment Royal Artillery,
and was returning to base in a Land Rover after training Iraqi officers when
the vehicle was hit near the town of Ad Dayr, north of Basra, in southern
Iraq.

In a statement, his commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Jon Campbell
described the South Pacific islander as "tough, hard-working and
resourceful".

"I have many Fijian soldiers in my regiment. I could see he was there with
the best of them," he added.

Other Fijians have died serving with British forces in Iraq, including one
soldier in a roadside bomb attack in Basra in May and another near Baghdad
in November 2004.

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