“We Would Not Describe This As Sinister”

That is what a British Ministry of Defense spokesman is quoted as saying about the families of soldiers receiving telephone calls. The calls include claims that their son/husband/father has been or will be killed or verbal abuse or other threats.

The calls originate from Iraq.

Wives and family members of soldiers fighting in Iraq have received telephone calls, believed to include death threats, from insurgents, according to military documents seen by The Sunday Telegraph.

The "nuisance" calls have been made with increasing frequency over the past few weeks after insurgents managed to obtain home numbers from soldiers' mobile telephones.

The growing number of calls has led to an investigation by the Royal Military Police, which has issued a warning to all soldiers in Iraq to take great care when using mobile telephones to call home.

The extent of the problem emerged in a restricted Army document issued to soldiers of the London Regiment, a Territorial Army unit, which has soldiers from its ranks serving in Iraq.

The document warns soldiers preparing to take part in operations that insurgents in southern Iraq have managed to obtain the home telephone numbers of soldiers by using electronic intercept devices to hack into mobile phone systems.

It is understood that the threats range from claims that a husband or son is dead or will be killed fighting in Iraq, to verbal abuse. Many of those who have received calls say that they were made by people with a poor command of English or with a Middle Eastern accent.

The spokesmen say that these are "nuisance" calls. Military officials need to ban personal cell phones for British troops at once. This is not a good situation at all. In addition, all personnel deployed in any war zone need to password protect their personal computers. This is an information war – don't give up information that can be exploited.

I would call the telephone calls quite sinister.