Three Scottish Black Watch soldiers and a translator have been killed by a suicide bomber at a checkpoint while 8 others were wounded in the subsequent mortar attack. “Soldiers manning a vehicle checkpoint were targeted by a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device in a suicide attack, followed shortly afterwards by mortar fire,” Junior Defense Minister Adam Ingram told a news conference in London.
The Scotland-based unit has been trying to lower tension by playing down its Britishness, handing out flyers which read “please allow me to introduce myself — I am a Scottish soldier with the Black Watch Regiment.”
The flyers have a Scottish flag, rather than a British flag.