British soldier set alight in Basra riot

A British soldier was set alight by a petrol bomb during riots in the southern Iraqi city of Basra that left 13 troops injured.

Two photographs showed the unnamed soldier running down a street with his head and shoulders on fire.

A Ministry of Defence spokeswoman said the 13 soldiers were evacuated to a nearby British military hospital at Shaibah, and none of them appeared to be suffering life-threatening wounds.

Protesters threw rocks at British soldiers riding in tanks and standing behind plastic riot shields in the streets of Basra.

Scores of Iraqi demonstrators were protesting a failure to get jobs with the local customs police.

An MoD spokesman said it would be wrong to see the incident as “a terrorist-related attack.”

Instead, he said, it was British soldiers acting to bring public unrest under control.

About 8,000 British soldiers are based in southern Iraq.