Iraq patrol takes in marsh school

British troops are continuing to patrol areas around their base near Basra as the date for their withdrawal draws closer.

One unit from Five Rifles paid a visit to a school in the southern marshes and found deep poverty and a chronic lack of modern services.

Assault rifles, bullet-proof vests and crayons. All are loaded onto the Merlin helicopter taking this patrol north into the marshes.

Because this is not just a combat mission to suppress attacks on the British base by rocket and mortar. It is also a visit to a school buried deep the Iraqi countryside.

At the school entrance, Sergeant Dave Ridley and the rest of the patrol are greeted by the head teacher, Wadi Mehdi Amed.

New school

He says he would not normally allow soldiers into his school but because their mission is humanitarian, he will make an exception.

It soon becomes clear that the Al Qadir School has huge problems.

It has more than 250 children aged from six to thirteen.

The school was built in 2006 but cracks are already showing in its concrete walls and there is no drinking water and no electricity.

Mr Amed says he has written to the electricity company three times and not had a proper response.

"We all feel frustrated about the situation," he says.

"I went down to the Basra Provincial Council and talked to them. They said they'd follow it up, but nothing has happened."

Troops from Five Rifles on patrol in Iraqi marshes

Outside in the schoolyard, some of the children talk about what they want to do when they grow up.

There are budding teachers and doctors, but circumstances are against their hopes for the future.

Their education has been disrupted by local tribes who fought over the ground where the school stands, not to mention the years of war and displacement after Saddam Hussein came to power 30 years ago.

One boy, Ali, says things are getting better. He likes the new school and says that until he started here two years ago, his schoolroom was a hut made from marsh reeds.

Sgt Ridley will file a report on the school's problems but it will be up to Iraqi education officials whether anything happens.

As the men of Five Rifles trudge on through the midday heat, a car pulls up ahead of us. The patrol silently and discretely forms a security cordon in case of any potential threat.

But it turns out the man in the black shirt striding towards us is a proud member of the Iraqi Army, who wants to find out if the British are going to build a bridge connecting a marsh island to the mainland.

Sgt Ridley makes careful notes but does not make any promises he will not be able to keep.