BRITISH SOLDIERS INJURED IN FIRE FIGHT

Four British soldiers were wounded after they were fired on with
handguns and rocket-propelled grenades, the US military said today.
The soldiers were wounded on Friday in Qalah Salih, about 25 miles
south of Amarah, after a crowd of residents gathered around a convoy
of coalition vehicles and troops who had arrested a man thought to
have fired on them earlier in the day with an RPG.

“The patrol returned fire after receiving fire from heavy machine
guns and a rocket-propelled grenade,” a British Ministry of Defence
spokeswoman said.

“They were extracted by a quick reaction force and whilst the
incident was happening, four of the patrol members received non-life
threatening injuries.”

The names of the wounded soldiers weren’t released.
The British spokeswoman said the four were taken to the Shaibah
military hospital near Basra. She did not identify the regiment
involved.

It wasn’t known if any bystanders or civilians were injured or
killed.

The incident happened in a sector commanded by British forces.
There are some 8,000 British troops stationed in Iraq.

Britain was the United States’ main ally in the Iraq conflict,
deploying around 46,000 soldiers for the war, and has lost 58 troops
since the start of hostilities.

Some 410 Danish troops are based near Qurnah, between Qalah Salih
and the city of Basra.

Southern Iraq, dominated by Shi’ites, has not had the
anti-coalition guerrilla violence that has plagued Baghdad and
mainly-Sunni central Iraq.

But Basra and other southern towns have seen killings and violence
blamed on local rivalries and revenge attacks on former Saddam
backers.

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