BAGHDAD - Two British soldiers and at least 16 Iraqis were killed in attacks across Iraq. The two British soldiers died in a roadside bombing near Basra in southern Iraq, an area relatively free of the deadly insurgency that has gripped much of the country since Saddam was deposed in April 2003.
The attack was claimed in a statement on an Islamist website by the Al Qaeda linked group of Iraqâs most-wanted man, Abu Musab Al Zarqawi. âYour brothers in the military branch of the Organisation of Al Qaeda in the Land of Two Rivers detonated a device near a British crusadersâ patrol in Basra province, destroying a military Jeep and killing two,â said the statement, whose authenticity could not be verified.
| The Lions of Islam⢠skulk about and set off a bomb. |
Altogether 94 British personnel have died in Iraq, according to the ministry of defence in London. |