Read about Jessica Lynch here

ULSTER-man and Commander of Northern Irelands 1st Batallion RIR, Tim Collins let rip his temper - and four pistol rounds - in a confrontation with an Iraqi looter. In a line that Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry would have been proud of, he bellowed: "What part of 'No' don't you understand?", as he reached for his Army pistol, took aim and shot out all four tyres on an Iraqi pick-up truck. The driver was a looter, stealing machinery, vital to the commercial future of Iraq's southern oilfields.

And his reluctance to return the spoils of war had brought him into conflict with the north Down born father-of-five, who is now the power in these parts. It was perhaps an unorthodox demonstration of that power, but the British assault on Saddam's Ba'ath party, a political and paramilitary group which has kept the local population living in terror for decades, has left a dangerous vacuum.

It is one which Lt Colonel Tim Collins is determined to fill. And so, in the first hearts and minds operation of this war, his men are imposing law and order on the region, while flooding it with food, medical aid, drinking water and power supplies. They are determined to make this ramshackle desert settlement - which I cannot name for fear of reprisals against them - a self governing model town to which the rest of free Iraq can one day look for reassurance and inspiration. In the drawers of his desk the regional Ba'ath party chief kept a knuckleduster and the keys to a personal armoury, from which 39 weapons have so far been recovered. He also, in a town of the hungry, had a quarter ton stockpile of food. In the desert wastes beyond the town limits are a number of mass graves, the final resting place of those who co-operated with American troops during the last Gulf conflict and who met with swift reprisals from Chemical Ali. They were, according to Lt Colonel Collins "discarded like dogs with a brutality beyond imagining". Their deaths were not however, covered up but publicised as a warning to the those who lived.

Northern Irelands Royal Irish have discovered barracks which would have housed two battalions of soldiers (perhaps 1,500 in total). They had a chemical weapons capacity and the soldiers had access to nerve agent antidote Atropene, suggesting the Ba'ath party, in this region at least, was prepared to use them. Lt Colonel Collins initially established himself in the Ba'ath party headquarters. It was a psychological move as much as a practical one: he was determined to throw open its doors, upon which one of his men had scrawled 'Welcome to Free Iraq', to local people. He said: "We came into this area hard and at no little risk. We have had great success in cutting off the Ba'ath Party here - its chief who was Lord God on High in these parts is currently considering his options in a Prisoner of War cage.

"I had reserved judgment on him and then I found the knuckleduster in his drawer. One of the few good things I can say about him and the party in general is that they keep meticulous records and we established all the names of their local members and the serial numbers of their weapons. "We knew they were threatening people who were co-operating with us, so we paid some of them a visit overnight. It's not straightforward but it works. "But with the civilians we have a hard task. They remember the Americans giving sweets to the children and food and fuel to the adults and then leaving them to face Chemical Ali. "A teenage girl who waved at British troops at Az-Zubayr yesterday was hanged within the hour there, so there is still much fear.

"Our mission is to fill the power vacuum left by the decapitation of the Ba'ath Party - you have to understand that nobody under the age of 45 has ever known life without it. "They have no concept or inkling of freedom and that is a heavy weight on our shoulders. We need to prove daily our physical and psychological dominance of this area of British operations, we need to maintain an air of menace, so people know that if there is any killing there will be swift retribution."

It was this retribution he administered to the looter in the pick-up.

Ulster Officer reveals brutality.

A teenage girl waved at our troops... she was hanged within the hour

By Ian Kirby, Political Editor

A SMILING teenage girl who waved at patrolling Ulster Scots soldiers and accepted a big-hearted squaddie's gift of chocolate was HANGED by agents of Saddam. The butchers of the dictator's corrupt Ba'ath party had spied on the Muslim youngster from an alleyway in Az Zubayr near Basra.

Battle-hardened Ulster troops of the 1st Batallion, The Royal Irish Regiment (RIR) choked back tears when they later saw her limp beaten body swaying from a lamp-post in the ramshackle south Iraq town held by Allies.

Ulster men have saw this horrific tactic before, it is used by Sinn Fein/IRA to control Catholics in Northern Ireland. The tragic tale of Jean McConville, executed on the command of Gerry Adams, the psychotic Sinn Fein IRA godfather. Jean was one of the Disappeared, a mother of 10, who, after giving a cup of water to a dying British soldier, was abducted, tortured, murdered and dumped like a stray dog in an unmarked grave by Sinn Fein/IRA as a warning to all who would dare even speak to a soldier.

And yesterday their grim-faced commander, Lt Colonel Tim Collins chewed on a cigar and confirmed: "A teenage girl who waved at my troops was hanged within the hour. "These daily outrages have made us more determined than ever to crush Saddam's evil regime. There's still much fear among the people we're meeting.

"Our mission is to assuage it, to fill the power vacuum left by the decapitation of the Ba'ath Party. You have to understand that nobody under the age of 45 has ever known life without it. They have no concept or inkling of freedom—and that's a heavy weight on our shoulders. " We came into this area hard and at no little risk. We've had great success in cutting off the Ba'ath Party here. " Its chief who was Lord God On High in these parts is currently considering his options in a Prisoner of War cage. " I'd reserved judgment on him—and then I found the knuckleduster in his drawer. " One of the few good things I can say about the party is that they keep meticulous records.

" We established all the names of local members. We knew they were threatening people co-operating with us, so we paid some of them a visit overnight. " It's not straightforward but it works. One man found a shot through his kitchen floor helped him remember where his weapon was hidden."

Belfast-born Lt Col Collins (pictured above) wears trendy Ray-Ban sunglasses and a kukri—the blade he is entitled to carry as a Gurkha commander. His troops are distributing food and medical supplies and restoring water and power while Ba'ath thugs terrorise the population. The soldiers have seen the mass graves Saddam's henchmen dug for their countrymen murdered for co-operating with US troops during the last Gulf War in 1991. This time round, in an unspeakable act of barbarism, children had their throats slit. And yesterday families fleeing Basra were fired on by Iraqi troops. Compassionate US marines picked up children and took them to safety.

Ulsters Royal Irish Regiment soldiers foiled a plot by the Ba'ath monsters to assassinate one of their comrades as ‘reprisal' for their liberation of the town. Lt Col Collins, who gave a rousing speech to his men at the start of the war, stormed: "There will be no murders on my watch. We came into this area with excellent intelligence and have since made first-class local contacts. At the risk of their lives local people offered information to my patrols and it was spot-on. It saved the life of one of my men." Lt Col Collins based himself in the Ba'ath party HQ as a psychological move. On the front door, one of his men has defiantly scrawled: "Welcome to Free Iraq."

Ulster Scots RIR soldiers play Iraq role.

Troops from Northern Ireland have been taking part in the major assault on southern Iraq as military action against Saddam Hussein continues. Hundreds of members of the the Royal Irish Regiment (formally the UDR) have been among huge numbers of troops continuing their push towards the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, according to BBC correspondents with US and UK forces.

Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, chief of the UK defence staff, said on Saturday that a unit - understood to include the Royal Irish Regiment - has been playing a key role in securing oil fields. "The 16 Air Assault Brigade is now on the move to occupy the southern oil fields and consolidate the coalition position there. "With these oil fields now firmly in coalition hands, our UK engineers are now at work making safe the well-heads which had been prepared for demolition, and we are also expecting contractors to help them today," he said. He said "practically all" of the area's oil and gas installations had been booby-trapped but that coalition forces were now in control.

He said nine of the oil wells had been set on fire and would be tackled soon. But he added that Iraq's 51st Division had surrendered in the area and that the US and UK now had thousands of prisoners of war. Iraq denies any desertions or surrenders by senior officers and accuses the invasion forces of "kidnapping" civilians.

A US spokesman earlier said there was a "major battle" on the way to the key southern area of Basra. A large contingent of about 8,000 British troops in 120 tanks and 145 armoured vehicles had moved into southern Iraq from Kuwait to support US forces heading to Basra, UK officials said. The advance included the "Desert Rats" of the 7th Armoured Division and paratroopers from 16 Air Assault Brigade, they said.

The Ulster Scots Irish Guards are with the offensive being mounted by the 7th Armoured Brigade. The troops have been broken up into units of company strength to operate in support of tank units. Brigadier Sebastian Roberts, speaking on Friday from the Irish Guards headquarters in London, said that they were widely dispersed across the operations. "Some of the Irish Guards are supporting the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards others are with battlegroups of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers and the Scottish regiment, the Black Watch," he said.

I'm Trying to Carry On As Normal

THE wife of an Ulster Scot RIR soldier deployed to the Gulf has questioned why anti-war protestors are continuing with their demonstrations. Elizabeth Loyal, who last spoke to her husband Pipe Major Robert Loyal four days ago, says she is uncertain when she will hear from him again. Mrs Loyal last saw her husband for a long weekend in January. Although she is very apprehensive about his situation she and their two children are "trying to carry on as normal"

Robert is off doing his job and there is nothing I can do about that," she said. "My two girls and I are just trying to keep going as normal. "They are off to school and I am at work. That is the best thing we can do for Robert. But when you watch the news you think all sorts.

"But I don't see why these anti-war protests are going on. I mean, why are they bothering now that is has all started. My husband and other soldiers are just cracking on and doing their jobs. I really wish they had more civilian support." Mrs Loyal first met her husband at an Army base in Dover. They married 13 years ago and moved to Germany, Cyprus, Edinburgh and Northern Ireland as his career progressed. "Robert is a professional soldier doing a job he loves," she said. "I was talking to him four days ago and he sounded his normal self. He said the boys were all fine, the weather was hot and there were sandstorms. "Most of the wives are very apprehensive about the war, it is only natural."

While the Ulster Scots ( Scotch Irish) Troops of the Royal Irish Regiment are of fighting in Iraq with The 16 Air Assault Brigade people in Ulster have to suffer the indignity of watching the terrorists of Sinn Fein IRA protesting against the war and calling President Bush and Tony Blair murderers. I simply cant believe the total hypocrisy of Gerry Adams and these ultra Irish thugs organizing protests around Ireland after all killing they have done.

A killer and terrorist calling the conflict a turkey shoot.

"There will be no pictures of burnt and mutilated bodies of innocent men, women and children, killed in the name of democracy. We in Sinn Féin will continue to play our part in the anti-war effort. We have now put our 32-county membership on alert, and will be fully mobilising in support against US murder throughout this island" Gerry Adams SinnFein/IRA