Two British soldiers were killed and a third was seriously wounded today north of Basra, the British military said.

British troops today pulled out of a base in southern Iraq that had come under frequent attack, aiming to reposition their forces along the area bordering Iran and crack down on smuggling.

Heavily-armed attackers rampaged through an open air market today in a tense, religiously mixed community south of Baghdad, killing 15 people and wounding 25.