Four British troops were injured near their base outside the southern city of Basra, an attack the Iraqi police described Thursday as a roadside bomb explosion that targeted a British patrol. According to the AP, the Wednesday night attack was followed by a clash between the troops and unidentified gunmen, Basra police Col. Kareem al-Zaidi said.
Britain's Ministry of Defense said four soldiers were hurt in the explosion, which it described as an explosion outside the British base. "We can confirm that British troops were involved in an incident to the northwest of Basra last night," a spokesman told AFP. "It was a British convoy that was passing through the outskirts of Basra on a routine mission.
"There were two explosions reported and our forces have extracted themselves from the immediate area. "It is thought that there were four people with relatively minor injuries."
According to Al-Zaidi, the Iraqi Army was searching central Basra for the gunmen involved in the attack.
