Three British soldiers killed in Basra

Three British soldiers were killed and one was seriously wounded today in the southern city of Basra, the British military reported.

Captain Hisham Halawi said the military was still collecting information and could not provide details yet on how the soldiers were killed.

Witnesses said the soldiers were riding in a sport utility vehicle and came under small arms fire from an unknown number of men in a pickup truck.

The deaths brought to 11 the number of Britons killed in combat since US President George W. Bush declared major fighting over on May 1.

The last combat killing of a British soldier was on August 14, when one died and two were wounded in Basra when the ambulance in which they were riding was hit by a roadside bomb.

While Basra has been relatively peaceful since Saddam Hussein’s regime fell on April 9, a large swathe of the country north and west of Baghdad, the so-called “Sunni Triangle”, has been the site of a bloody guerrilla war that has taken the lives of 65 US soldiers since May 1.

The August 14 killing of the British medic happened during a weekend of violent protests over electricity cuts and fuel shortages.