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Journalist sees her camp mortar-bombed during Iraq trip

A journalist from the Southern Daily Echo who travelled to Iraq saw her camp mortar-bombed during a week living with the troops.

She also endured what she decribed as the “terrifying ordeal” of a hot desert journey in 30-ton tank.

Assistant news editor Jenny Makin travelled to the war-torn country to visit Hampshire troops serving with the Princess of Wales’ Royal Regiment based near Basra.

She spent a week living with soldiers, Navy personnel and RAF staff to find out what life was like for the British forces there.

During her stay her camp at Basra Air Station came under mortar attack, and less than 12 hours later she took a journey across the desert in a “moving tin can” – an armoured Warrior tank.

She said: “The scariest thing about being inside one of these armoured personnel carriers used by 1PWRR is that you cannot see outside and have no sense of what is going on, where you are going or what lies ahead.”

  • Jenny with some of the troops
  • She also met dozens of personnel from the circulation area of the Southampton-based daily newspaper and was able to send back messages to their families.

    And despite the sweltering heat and unbearable humidity, there were some welcome diversions – including branches of Pizza Hut and Subway which had just opened near the Shaibah Logistics Base.

    Jenny said: “It has been an experience of a lifetime that is difficult to sum up in words and the most incredible insight to just what our forces are having to cope with in this conflict which appears to have no end in sight.

    “Everyone I spoke to on the ground told me this is no longer a question of whether Britain was right to go to war in the first place, that is in the past.

    “What matters now to them is that they stay and get the job finished, no matter how long it may take and how much danger they are in.”

    She added: “My week in Iraq had felt more like a month, mostly because of debilitating heat and the distinct lack of sleep.

    “I have drank more bottled water than I thought imaginable and have returned with a number of blisters to remind me where I have been.”

    Southern Daily Echo editor-in-chief Ian Murray said: “Jenny did a superb job, especially with coming under fire at times.

    “Despite that she provided copy daily for the paper and our website.”