Six British soldiers killed in southern Iraq; eight injured

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Six British soldiers died while training police in southern Iraq, and eight others were wounded Tuesday when Iraqis ambushed a patrol and a helicopter.

The ambush was among 25 attacks on U.S. and British soldiers over a 24-hour period, making for one of the deadliest days for the coalition since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime on April 9. Three Iraqis were killed in a firefight with American soldiers west of Baghdad.

The violence near the town of Amarah were a surprise outbreak of violence in Iraq's largely Shiite south, which has largely been quiet even as American troops in central and western Iraq have come under near daily hit-and-run attacks.

Defense Secretary Geoffrey Hoon told Parliament in London that the British soldiers were killed while training Iraqi police in the town of Majar al-Kabir, apparently in a police station.

Earlier, a British army spokesman in Basra said the soldiers were killed by Iraqi fire.

The ambush took place in the same town, about 90 miles north of the city of Basra.

A "large number of Iraqi gunmen" fired rocket-propelled grenades, heavy machine guns and rifle fire at a British patrol, wounding one soldier, Hoon said.

A rapid reaction force, including Scimitar light tanks and a Chinook CH-47 helicopter, came to help the ground troops but were also fired on, Hoon said. Seven people on board the helicopter were wounded, three of them seriously, the government said.

It was the deadliest day for coalition forces since May 19, when six U.S. Marines died, most in a helicopter crash and a vehicle accident.

The deadliest single attack on the coalition came on March 23, the early days of the U.S.-led invasion, when Iraqis opened fire on a U.S. Army maintenance unit near the southern town of Nasiriyah, killing 11 soldiers. Several soldiers were captured, including Pfc. Jessica Lynch, who later was rescued by American commandos.

Without flak jackets

At least 18 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraqi attacks since May 1, when major combat was declared over. Those attacks have largely been blamed on Saddam loyalists and occurred mainly in the belt of central and western Iraq known as the "Sunni Triangle" where Saddam had his strongest support.

The British, however, have not seen major violence for weeks. Their troops have felt secure enough to patrol the country's second-biggest city, Basra, without flak jackets or helmets.

"It's normally very quiet down here," said British Army Lt. Col. Ronnie McCourt, in Basra. "We've been here nearly two months now and this is the first time people have been deliberately, consciously shooting at us."

British Army Capt. Dennis Abbott insisted the day of attacks "in no way reflects the general security situation across the UK area of operations."

Forty-two British troops have died -- 19 in accidents -- since the war began March 20. Britain had suffered no confirmed combat deaths since April 6.

Amarah, 180 miles southeast of Baghdad, saw an uprising against Saddam's rule in the early days of the coalition invasion of Iraq. By the time U.S. Marines reached the city in early April, local Shiites had seized control.

Major base abandoned

Saddam's military had a major base just outside Amarah, but the Americans found it abandoned. The U.S. forces moved on without occupying the city, and later British troops moved in as part of the postwar occupation.

Officials at the Pentagon said insurgents were ratcheting up anti-U.S. attacks, staging 25 of them in the past day alone. American troops battled Iraqis at a checkpoint in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, on Tuesday, leaving three Iraqis dead and one American wounded.

Iraqi insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades at U.S. troops in at least three towns in western Iraq. In Baghdad, guerrillas fired a grenade near the headquarters of the U.S. administration Tuesday. No injuries were reported in that attack.

Late Monday, insurgents fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the mayor's office in Fallujah, the latest in a series of attacks against people believed to be cooperating with U.S. occupation forces in Iraq.

U.S. troops shot and killed one of the ambushers in Fallujah, a town 35 miles west of Baghdad, U.S. military officers said. But local residents at the scene said the man killed was not involved in the attack and was caught in the crossfire.

During the past 24 hours, the U.S. military said it had conducted 1,068 day patrols and 837 night patrols across Iraq in an effort to stem the violence.

Meanwhile, U.S. officials said the military was still holding Syrian border guards wounded during an American attack on a convoy believed to include leaders from Saddam's ousted regime heading toward the Syrian border.

Syria kept a strict silence about the attack, which took place a week ago but only became known in recent days. Syrian officials refused comment, and state-run television, newspapers and radio made no mention of the clash.

U.S. special operations forces, backed by warplanes, attacked the convoy last Wednesday, acting on information from a captured top aide of Saddam. The heavy fire left wrecked buildings and cars and casualties on both sides of the Syrian-Iraqi border.

An undisclosed number of people were killed and wounded in the incident, and American troops captured about 20 people, most of whom since have been released, a senior U.S. defense official said Monday.

At least five Syrian border guards were wounded, and three of them were treated by American forces. None of the Syrians in U.S. hands had been returned by Tuesday.