Polish troops under fire in Iraq
From correspondents in Warsaw 

08/01/03 (Daily Telegraph. UK) A BASE housing Polish troops in Iraq came under mortar fire overnight but there were no casualties or damage, the defence ministry said on Friday.

It said that US special forces had tried but failed to capture the assailants.

The ministry said five mortar shells were fired in the early hours at a logistics base in the town of Hilla, near Baghdad, but all of them fell at the edge of the facility.

"Our men were immediately evacuated to a shelter, while US special forces and gendarmes set off to chase the assailants," ministry spokesman Eugeniusz Mleczak said.

However, the assailants escaped, he said.

The attack was the first reported against Polish troops in Iraq, where about 300 military personnel are working to prepare for the deployment of a multinational division under Polish command.

US troops in Iraq have been coming under almost daily attack since May 1, when President George W. Bush said that main combat operations were over in the country.