TWO British soldiers patrolling the streets of Basra, who saved the life of a new-born Iraqi girl, were praised by their commanding officers yesterday.

After cornering five terror suspects in a house deep inside the war-ravaged city, the squaddies - based at Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire - along with two of their colleagues, began to search the premises.

Within minutes they discovered a dusty 3ft-long padlocked metal box containing a cache of deadly weapons.

Lying among the rocket-propelled grenade launchers, AK47s and ammunition, wrapped up in a blanket, was "Rose" - barely two days old and abandoned by her mother.

The baby was no longer breathing, but Private Damien Kenny and Private Jonathan Hunt refused to give up and began giving her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Then, after several minutes, she squeezed Pte Kenny's finger and began to breathe again.

"We were expecting to find weapons hidden in the box," said Pte Kenny, 18, from Wigan. "We couldn't believe it when we saw it was a baby girl and we had to try something."

Their commanding officer, Major Paul Davies, said that without the intervention of his men the baby would surely have died.