Six British soldiers killed and eight injured in Iraq

SIX British soldiers died in southern Iraq yesterday, and an ambush on a patrol and a helicopter wounded at least eight others in one of the deadliest days for coalition forces since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

The ambush was the first significant attack on the British since major combat was declared over on May 1. While Americans have been under fire in central Iraq for weeks, the British in the south have felt secure enough to patrol the country’s second-biggest city, Basra, without flak jackets or helmets.

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