BAGHDAD, 15 August 2003 — A British soldier was killed and two were wounded in the southern city of Basra yesterday as US troops killed at least six Iraqi “hostiles” north of Baghdad.
“A British military ambulance was targeted by an improvised explosive device on the outskirts of Basra’s city center this morning,” a British military spokesman said. “One serviceman was killed and two suffered non-life threatening wounds.”
The latest death raised to 15 the number of British soldiers killed since US and British forces invaded Iraq on March 20 to oust Saddam Hussein. US President George W. Bush declared major combat over on May 1 but since then there have been daily attacks on US and British soldiers.
In Basra, which has been under British control, riots erupted on Saturday and Sunday in a protest over power and fuel shortages. A Nepalese security guard and two Iraqis were killed.
The top US commander in Iraq said that up to 2,500 tons of oil products are being smuggled out of southern Iraq each day, worsening fuel shortages and power cuts. “We believe that somewhere between 2,000 and 2,500 tons of various sorts of fuel are smuggled out of Iraq from the south, and the volume of smuggled crude oil, diesel and gasoline is estimated to be worth somewhere around $200,000 per day,” Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez said.
A US Army spokesman, meanwhile, said that US troops encountered three “hostiles” armed with AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades and shot dead one of them in Ash-Sharqat, 65 km (40 miles) north of Tikrit.
Lt. Col. Bill MacDonald said four people were killed Wednesday in separate incidents near Baquba, 65 km northeast of Baghdad.
