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Gibraltar soldiers poised for 6-month tour in Iraq
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Ten soldiers of the Royal Gibraltar Regiment are currently in Kuwait as they acclimatise for a forthcoming six-month tour of Iraq.
The soldiers, led by Lieutenant Timothy Cumming, are attached to the 1st Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers who will be based in the Contingency Operating Base (COB) on the outskirts of Basra.
Since February of this year, the RG troops have been in Germany conducting Pre-Deployment Training with the Fusiliers, a battalion well-used to operating in their Warrior Armoured Fighting Vehicles.
The Gibraltarian soldiers have quickly learned the new skills of Armoured Infantry operations and they have been tested on a number of exercises, said a spokesman at HQBF. Their final exercise was conducted in Honefels in southern Germany where they made the most of the purpose-built live-firing facilities on an American base. In Honefels, the soldiers worked alongside Apache helicopter gunships and Challenger main battle tanks ? just as they will in Iraq.
For several of the RG soldiers the Iraq tour will be their first operational deployment and, by the time they return to Gibraltar, they will have been away from home for a total of ten months.
Summer in Gibraltar may be hot ? summer in Iraq will be hotter.
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