A roadside bomb killed a British soldier and injured four more on Sunday north of Basra in southern Iraq, the British military said. One of the wounded was in a serious condition, a British spokesman said.
On Saturday, the American Army suffered one of its deadliest days in Iraq when 20 troops were killed, including 13 on a helicopter and five in a clash with Shiite militiamen. The battle at a government building in Kerbala was the bloodiest for American forces in the south in two years, Reuters reported.
The U.S. military said five soldiers were killed and three wounded in the Kerbala clash. Two other soldiers were killed elsewhere, and the deaths of two killed on Friday were also announced.
On Sunday, a bomb killed six people on a bus in the center of Baghdad and another, a car bomb, killed one in the capital.
The U.S. military said on Sunday a brigade of around 3,200 soldiers had arrived in Baghdad, the first of some 17,000 planned reinforcements for the city, and it would be fully operational by the start of February. "The effort represents the first of several planned troop movements that will assist Iraqi security forces in reducing violence and protecting Iraqi citizens," a statement said.
