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By NICK PARKER
and ANDY RUSSELL

TWO union chiefs who led firefighters out on strike went to Iraq and returned spouting Saddam Hussein’s propaganda, The Sun can reveal.

Bob Pounder and Howard Western BLASTED Britain and our allies over sanctions against Iraq after their Baghdad jolly.

The hard-Left stooges were unmasked as Britain’s 50,000 firefighters walked out at 6pm last night despite fears of terror attacks.

With the strike only an hour old a woman died in a house fire as RAF firefighters raced to the scene.

But two striking fire crews broke their stoppage to dash to their aid.

Pounder, fire union boss in Manchester, made a bizarre analogy between firemen and the war on Iraq.

He said that while Tony Blair was prepared to spill others’ blood, “firefighters have been paying a blood price for years”.

The 48-hour strike was masterminded by Fire Brigades Union supremo Andy Gilchrist — who has a picture of revolutionary Che Guevara in his office.

The strike, over a whopping 40 per cent pay claim, is the biggest union challenge to a government since the heyday of maverick miners’ leader Arthur Scargill.

Last year’s trip to Iraq by Pounder and regional FBU secretary Western was to show workers’ solidarity.

Western even donned Iraqi robes.

Both men attended a rally calling for an end to UN sanctions.

And they met Saddam’s Minister of Labour Dr Saddi Tuma Abbass. They were told: “Your visit is a message to the enemies of humanity.”

Writing in the magazine Firefighter on his return, Pounder pledged the FBU’s backing for an end to sanctions.

He stormed: “Surely our government is not beyond reproach and accountability in contentious areas of foreign policy.

“The whole trade union movement for internationalist and humanitarian reasons has a duty and responsibility to act.

“In the fullness of time, the Fire Brigades Union position on Iraq will be vindicated.”

The union men presented an FBU plaque to the Iraqi Fire Service — and were taken to a site where Saddam claims 403 civilians were killed in an air raid during the 1991 Gulf War.

In his magazine article, Pounder claimed the civilians had been “executed in a planned and co-ordinated attack”.

Earlier this year, Pounder ranted after firefighters voted for industrial action: “Tony Blair said he was prepared to pay a blood price to attack Iraq.

“It’s not his blood of course. Firefighters have been paying a blood price for years and it is high time for this to end”.

Pounder has risen through the ranks of the FBU by championing extreme left-wing causes.

He is an ordinary fireman on £26,000 a year. But he can devote up to half of his working hours to union duties.

He recently invited a group of asylum seekers to tea at his office to support their campaign against repressive Turkish jails.

Last year he backed a fireman carpeted for refusing to salute a superior — slamming Manchester fire chiefs for fostering a “militarism culture”.

He also sparked controversy during the race riots in Oldham when he complained firemen were working alongside “a paramilitary police force”.

Pounder said he feared fire crews would be seen as “forces of oppression”.

The Sun repeatedly rang Pounder’s mobile to ask him to explain his views yesterday.

Eventually a man answered, saying: “We are not interested in speaking.”

Yesterday it was clear the loony left was jumping on the strike bandwagon.

In Cambridge and in Preston, Lancs, pickets were joined by Socialist Workers Party members.

JAIL officers are set to walk out over lack of safety cover during the firemen’s strike.

Union bosses held talks yesterday, claiming the lives of 34,000 warders could be put at risk if inmates riot.

A Prison Officers Association insider said: “We can’t rule out strike action where fire and safety cover is deemed inadequate.”

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