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Chopper crash: five British soldiers killed

BASRA (IRAQ): Five British servicemen were killed in the helicopter that went down in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, the military said on Sunday, as troops worked to recover the craft's burned-out wreckage.

``Five of our troops perished in the helicopter crash,'' British military spokesman Major Sebastian Muntz said, while the Ministry of Defence in London only confirmed that up to five persons were on board the stricken craft.

``There were no more than five people on board the helicopter,'' British Defence Secretary Des Browne told BBC television. ``We are currently informing the next of kin.''

The crash on Saturday sparked bloody clashes with at least five Iraqis killed and dozens wounded when British troops sent to recover their dead from the crashed helicopter encountered an angry mob. Two Iraqi children were among the dead.

Car bomb attacks

On Sunday, three car bombs rocked northern Baghdad neighbourhoods within a span of half an hour while another struck a Shia holy city, in attacks that left at least 17 dead and 44 wounded, police said. The explosions in Baghdad came as a suicide car bomb went off in Karbala, home to one of the two holiest Shia shrines, leaving 5 dead and 19 wounded near the province's Government building.

The attack occurred at around 9:30 a.m. local time as workers were returning to their offices after the weekend.

The bomber got within 300 metres of the heavily fortified government building, and set off the explosives in an area of heavy traffic. Eight cars were burned.

Police said smoke could be seen rising from the site of the explosion and cars in the area were burning, as authorities fired wildly in the air.

The worst strike in Baghdad occurred at 9:20 a.m. targeting an Iraqi army patrol in the northern neighbourhood of Azamiyah, killing 10 and wounding 15, most of them Iraqi soldiers.

The first car bomb in Baghdad went off at 8:50 a.m. targeting a police patrol. It missed the patrol, but left one civilian dead and wounded five others.

Ten minutes later, another car bomb went off near a college in northern Baghdad, targeting a police patrol. One civilian was killed. — AP

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