A British national working for a US company clearing ordnance in the Iraqi city of Ramadi was killed Monday as he tried to defuse a bomb, his company and officials said. "We've just been made aware that there has been a British national killed in Ramadi," a British embassy spokesperson told AFP. The mayor of Ramadi, which is the capital of the western Anbar province and was retaken by Iraqi forces from the Islamic State group earlier this year, confirmed the incident.
"A contractor of British origin was killed and another wounded as they attempted to defuse an IED (improvised explosive device) in the Malaab neighbourhood," Ibrahim al-Osej told AFP. The contract for clearing the thousands of improvised explosive devices and booby-traps the jihadists left behind in Ramadi was awarded to US company Janus. "The incident is under investigation, but what we can confirm is that, sadly, there was one fatality, a national of the United Kingdom.