British bomb disposal expert killed

Day 13: Fresh attacks launched on Baghdad and Republican guard; Heatwave to kick in soon; Kuwait shoots down Iraqi missile; Saddam's family 'tried to escape'

A British soldier was killed in southern Iraq yesterday while dealing with explosives, the Ministry of Defence announced today.

In other developments on Day 13 of the war: attacks were maintained on Baghdad and the Republican Guard outside the city; the heat is expected to soar by Sunday; an Iraqi missile was shot down before it reached Kuwait; and Washington says there is evidence that Saddam's family had tried to escape.

British victim: The Ministry of Defence said the soldier killed in southern Iraq yesterday while dealing with explosives, was a bomb disposal expert - and the 26th British serviceman to die in the Iraqi conflict. His name and rank have not been disclosed.

A message on the MoD's website said: "A soldier was killed in southern Iraq on March 31 during an explosive ordnance disposal operation. His family have been informed."

The soldier is the third member of a bomb disposal unit to die in the Iraqi conflict. On 23 March, two members of the Essex-based 33 (EOD) Engineer Regiment, went missing after an attack on military vehicles near Basra. Their bodies were later shown on Qatar–based satellite broadcaster al–Jazeera, prompting condemnation from coalition commanders and politicians.

Battle for Baghdad: US forces today fired missiles into Baghdad and the city of Karbala to the south-east, where circling warplanes bombed targets in the area.

A massive explosion at 9am shook buildings inside the city. It wasn't immediately known what was hit.

A steady series of explosions rumbled south of the capital this morning - against Republican Guard positions - after some of the strongest blasts in Baghdad since the air war began.

Six explosions in rapid succession shook central Baghdad last night, sending smoke billowing from the Old Palace presidential compound and bathing the sky in a soft orange glow.

The Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said 19 people had been killed and more than 100 injured in air raids on the capital over the past day.

Temperature soars: Troops in Iraq are facing an intense heatwave with temperatures set to climb steeply to 41C (about 106F) by Sunday, according to weather experts.

Michael Dukes, meteorologist at the PA WeatherCentre, said: "This is the first major heatwave of the season but it looks more intense than is usual for this time of year. It will be a dry heat and there is no indication that the sandstorms will return any time soon because the wind is coming from a different direction.

"We would expect temperatures to drop back down early next week."

Kuwait alert: An Iraqi missile was shot down today by a Patriot missile battery before it reached Kuwait, a military spokesman said.

"Our radars detected a missile launched by Iraq.... It was shot down in southern Iraq before it entered our airspace," said Lieutenant Colonel Awad Metawtah.

There was also a false alarm in Kuwait City, when another Patriot missile was fired in what appeared to be at least the 17th missile that Iraq has fired at Kuwait since coalition troops invaded Iraq.

On Saturday, a low-flying Iraqi missile crashed on a jetty in front of a major shopping centre, causing minor damage to the building and two minor injuries.

Escape attempt claimed: In Washington, a Pentagon spokeswoman Tori Clarke said US officials had seen evidence that members of Saddam's family, and the families of senior Iraqi officials, had tried to escape although she refuse to elaborate.

Yesterday, Iraqi television showed Saddam with his sons Odai and Qusai, but there was no way of determining when the video was filmed.

Meanwhile the US Secretary of State Colin Powell was travelling to Turkey and Belgium today for talks on the war as well as post-war reconstruction of Iraq.