Three British soldiers killed in Iraq, one hurt
( 2003-08-23 16:17) (Agencies)
Three British soldiers were killed and one was seriously wounded Saturday morning in the southern city of Basra, the British military reported.
Cindy Miles weeps at the casket of her son, Army PFC Timmy Brown, Jr. of Conway, Penn. as she is comforted by a military official after her son's funeral services at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. Friday, Aug. 22, 2003. Timmy, assigned to D Company, 510th Military Intelligence Batallion at Fort Bragg, N.C., was killed by an explosive device August 12th in Taji, Iraq. [AP] |
Capt. 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 U.S. President George W. Bush declared major fighting over on May 1.
The last combat killing of a British soldier was Aug. 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 swath 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 U.S. soldiers since May 1.
The Aug. 14 killing of the British medic occurred during a weekend of violent protests over electricity cuts and fuel shortages.
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