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PAUL JARVIS/MOD-GETTY IMAGES; (inset) GILES PENFOLD/REUTERS |
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C O M B I N E D B R I T I S H F O R C E S
ITS MISSION: The British have deployed 26,000 Royal Army troops, including the famed "Desert Rats" of the 7th Armored Brigade, on the ground in the region, along with 4,000 Royal Marines. Britain's 1st Armored Division is accompanying the U.S. Marines' 1st Expeditionary Force in the siege of Basra. The British suffered one of the allies' first major losses of the war, when eight Royal Marine commandos were killed in a helicopter crash in Kuwait
THE COMMANDER: Major General Robin Brims, 51, who leads Britain's 1st Armored Division, is commander of all the British land forces in the region. Commissioned into the light infantry in 1970, he has served in Bosnia, Germany and Northern Ireland. His hope, he said before the war began, is that Iraqi troops will "join the coalition" against Saddam Hussein.
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