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Six British Soldiers Killed in Iraq

Posted on: Tuesday, 24 June 2003, 06:00 CDT

Attackers fired on British forces in southern Iraq on Tuesday, killing six troops and wounding eight others in the deadliest confrontation for coalition forces since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

The six British soldiers were killed in the first of two separate attacks, British Army Capt. Dennis Abbott said. In the other attack, three soldiers were wounded seriously.

In the first attack, British troops were fired upon by Iraqis, but Abbott declined to give further details. Both attacks occurred near the southern town of Amarah.

The two ambushes were the first significant attacks 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.

It was the deadliest day for coalition forces since May 19, when six U.S. Marines died.

The biggest single attack on coalition forces was on March 23, when Iraqi fighters ambushed a U.S. Army maintenance unit near the southern town of Nasiriyah, killing 11 soldiers. Several soldiers were captured, including Pfc. Jessica Lynch, who was later rescued by American commandos.

British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said he would make a statement on the attacks later Tuesday in the House of Commons.

"Our immediate priority is the informing of the next of kin and obviously all our thoughts are with those families at this time," Hoon said outside No. 10 Downing Street.

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

The circumstances in which the British troops were killed were unclear.

British troops came under attack in another location only miles away in Amarah, a mostly Shiite city 90 miles north of Basra. Gunmen fired on a patrol, wounding one soldier.

A helicopter dispatched to assist the ground forces then came under fire as it landed and seven people on board were wounded, three of them seriously, said British Prime Minister Tony Blair's office.

Two British Army vehicles also were destroyed, Abbott said.

The wounded were evacuated by a separate helicopter, he said.

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