British soldier killed in Iraq operation, insurgent violence up

BAGHDAD – A British soldier was killed and another wounded during a raid near Iraq’s main southern city of Basra yesterday, among nearly a dozen people killed in insurgent violence around the country.

The two soldiers had been carrying out a raid in the tribal area of Garmat Ali, north of the city, to “apprehend individuals involved in terrorist activities in Basra,” British spokesman Major Charlie Burbridge said. He said the raid had resulted in the detention of two “suspected terrorists”.The wounded soldier was “not in a serious condition,” he added.The death brought to 114 the British military’s losses in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion and raised new concerns about the security situation in the mainly Shi’ite south, which had been relatively calm compared with Sunni central and western Iraq where US troops have sustained heavy casualties.British Major General John Cooper, head of coalition troops in southern Iraq, told AFP on Thursday that the coalition forces had to work “more on Basra”, especially on the city’s police.British troops have often clashed with the Basra police.Commanders say they have been infiltrated by militiamen loyal to Shi’ite radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr.Last month, British Defence Secretary Des Browne called for a security crackdown in Basra on the lines of one currently being implemented in the capital.But the Baghdad operation has so far failed to stem raging violence.Three people were killed and 32 wounded in a bomb attack in a tyre market in the city’s Karrada district Sunday, police said.In the confessionally mixed province of Diyala northeast of the capital, a former official of ousted president Saddam Hussein’s Baath party died in a drive-by shooting that also killed his son and a woman bystander.Two other civilians died in separate shootings in the province.In the northern oil city of Kirkuk, gunmen killed two brothers who ran a barber’s shop for cutting hair in Western fashions, police said.South of Baghdad, an Iraqi soldier was killed while attempting to remove a bomb placed in a cafe in the town of Iskandiriyah.Five corpses were also found across Iraq.- Nampa-AFPHe said the raid had resulted in the detention of two “suspected terrorists”.The wounded soldier was “not in a serious condition,” he added.The death brought to 114 the British military’s losses in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion and raised new concerns about the security situation in the mainly Shi’ite south, which had been relatively calm compared with Sunni central and western Iraq where US troops have sustained heavy casualties.British Major General John Cooper, head of coalition troops in southern Iraq, told AFP on Thursday that the coalition forces had to work “more on Basra”, especially on the city’s police.British troops have often clashed with the Basra police.Commanders say they have been infiltrated by militiamen loyal to Shi’ite radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr.Last month, British Defence Secretary Des Browne called for a security crackdown in Basra on the lines of one currently being implemented in the capital.But the Baghdad operation has so far failed to stem raging violence.Three people were killed and 32 wounded in a bomb attack in a tyre market in the city’s Karrada district Sunday, police said.In the confessionally mixed province of Diyala northeast of the capital, a former official of ousted president Saddam Hussein’s Baath party died in a drive-by shooting that also killed his son and a woman bystander.Two other civilians died in separate shootings in the province.In the northern oil city of Kirkuk, gunmen killed two brothers who ran a barber’s shop for cutting hair in Western fashions, police said.South of Baghdad, an Iraqi soldier was killed while attempting to remove a bomb placed in a cafe in the town of Iskandiriyah.Five corpses were also found across Iraq.- Nampa-AFP