TWO Colchester-based Paras have been killed in Iraq, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.The members of 2nd Battalion the Parachute Regiment died yesterday in a bomb blast close to a playground in the south of the country.

By Roddy Ashworth

TWO Colchester-based Paras have been killed in Iraq, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.

The members of 2nd Battalion the Parachute Regiment died yesterday in a bomb blast close to a playground in the south of the country.

Insurgent bombers are thought to have planted an improvised explosive device inside an abandoned car at the side of a main road close to the playground in Al Amarah.

It exploded as British Army Land Rovers passed by on a routine patrol.

A third soldier was injured but his wounds were not life threatening.

The Paras are understood to be attached to the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards battle group.

Colleagues who arrived later at the scene of the attack were stoned by an angry mob which included young children.

Video footage thought to have been taken very shortly after the attack showed a crowd throwing missiles at four British soldiers standing close to an armoured fighting vehicle.

Two Army Land Rovers, thought to have been part of the patrol, were nearby and the front of one of them was badly damaged.

A vehicle thought to have been used for the bomb was still ablaze and the road was strewn with debris.

Al Amarah is close to the Iranian border and an Army investigation, which is already under way, will analyse bomb components to see if they are traceable to Iran.

British officials have accused Iran of supplying hi-tech devices used in a series of similar attacks on British forces, a charge denied by Tehran.

No British soldiers were injured in the disturbances which followed yesterday's fatal roadside bomb attack and after investigating the scene all troops returned to Camp Abu Naji on the outskirts of the town.

The attack took the number of UK service personnel who have died since the Iraq conflict began to 103.