Iraqis attack British troops, six die

Six British troops were killed and eight wounded in Iraq in the worst single death toll sustained by British and US forces since March 23, three days after they went to war to topple former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.

British US forces were hit by a string of attacks on Tuesday, the toughest day in their battle to eliminate resistance by what they brand as die-hard Saddam loyalists since the Iraqi leader fell on April 9.

British Minister Tony Blair's government, vowing not to waver in its Iraq mission, said the casualties occurred in two separate incidents near the city of Amarah, some 200km north of Iraq's British-controlled second city, Basra.

"Coalition forces have worked hard to secure Iraq ...They will not be deflected from their efforts by the enemies of peace," Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon told a solemn parliament, as Queen Elizabeth expressed sorrow on behalf of the nation.

Hoon initial information suggested the six dead -- military police who had been training Iraqi police -- were involved in an incident at a police station. A defense source said it was believed they died from hostile fire.

In the second incident, seven troops were wounded when a British helicopter was fired on as it went to aid a military convoy under attack.

A British soldier in the convoy was wounded and two vehicles were destroyed.

The British deaths were the latest in a spate of postwar blows to Blair, who defied public opinion at home to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with US President George W. Bush and go to war despite widespread international opposition.

In the previous bloodiest incident, the Pentagon identified seven US Marines as killed in a clash near the southern city of Nassiriya on March 23.

Although US forces are now under daily attack in central Iraq, the British controlling southern areas had not previously encountered any major violence or deaths since Saddam's fall.

Many British soldiers had swapped helmets for caps in a hearts-and-minds drive.

In one of the latest attacks on US forces, assailants launched gun and grenade raids in the volatile town of Falluja, 70km west of Baghdad, witnesses said.

One Iraqi man was killed when the soldiers returned fire, they said. It was not clear if he was one of the attackers.

Residents Ramadi, some 100km west of Baghdad, said four civilians were killed in the crossfire.

Dubai-based television said an explosion hit an oil pipeline northwest of Baghdad on Tuesday, causing no fires but destroying surrounding farmland. Several blasts have damaged oil and gas pipelines crucial to Iraq's economic recovery.

Nineteen US soldiers have been killed by hostile fire in Iraq since Bush declared major combat over on May 1.

Attacks US troops were sporadic in the immediate aftermath of Saddam's fall, but this month they increased significantly and became more sophisticated and deadlier.

Many Iraqis, pleased to see the end of Saddam, had warned that attacks against occupation forces would pick up if the US-led administration in the country did not move quickly to hand power back to Iraqis and restore the infrastructure.

The inability of London and Washington to find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, their main reason for war, or Saddam has damaged Blair's credibility and his popularity.

After the toppling of Saddam with only a small number of British casualties, Britons had rallied behind Blair.

But in past weeks, he has faced allegations he "sexed up" evidence of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction to justify the conflict and on Tuesday his government apologized for plagiarizing a student thesis to produce an arms dossier.

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