Iraq attacks kill 4 U.K. soldiers, 5 Americans

updated 3:57 p.m. ET April 5, 2007

BAGHDAD - As it hailed the return of 15 sailors seized by Iran nearly two weeks ago, Britain announced the deaths of four soldiers in an ambush south of Baghdad, the deadliest attack on U.K. forces in Iraq in more than four months.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair raised the possibility that elements linked to Iran might have been behind the attack, which he called "a terrorist act," but he added that it was too early to make a specific allegation against Tehran.

Also on Thursday, the U.S. military announced five American troops had died in separate attacks in Baghdad, and a U.S. Army helicopter went down south of the capital, injuring four of the nine passengers onboard, officials said.

The U.S. military said the five U.S. soldiers were killed in three separate attacks in the Baghdad area, where thousands of American forces have taken to the streets with their Iraqi counterparts as part of the operation to quell sectarian violence in the city of 6 million people.

A roadside bomb Wednesday killed two soldiers and wounded three others in southern Baghdad, while another blast north of the capital killed two soldiers and wounded one, the military said. The fifth soldier was killed Tuesday by small-arms fire while on patrol in eastern Baghdad, a predominantly Shiite part of the city, the military said.

U.K. patrol hit by bomb, small-arms fire
The British patrol struck a roadside bomb and was hit by small-arms fire about 2 a.m. in the Hayaniyah district in western Basra, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad, British military spokeswoman Capt. Katie Brown said.

In addition to the deaths of the British soldiers and the Kuwaiti civilian interpreter, another British soldier was seriously wounded in the attack, Brown said.

“Now it is far too early to say that the particular terrorist act that killed our forces was an act committed by terrorists that were backed by any elements of the Iranian regime, so I make no allegation in respect of that particular incident,” Blair said.

The four deaths came as Britain celebrated the return home of 15 sailors and marines who had been held for 13 days by Iran in an incident that raised tensions between London and Tehran, as well as throughout the Middle East.

“Just as we rejoice at the return of our 15 service personnel so today we are also grieving and mourning for the loss of our soldiers in Basra, who were killed as the result of a terrorist act,” Blair said.

The Basra explosion created a 3-foot-deep crater. Hours after the attack, the helmet of a British soldier was still in the streets as well as dozens of spent bullets.

Police in Basra said the British patrol had earlier detained 1st Lt. Haidar al-Jazaeri of the Interior Ministry’s Major Crimes unit, and were on their way back when they were attacked.

Four British forces were killed on Nov. 12 in an attack on a Multinational Forces boat patrol on the Shatt Al-Arab waterway in Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city. Ten Britons also died in the Jan. 30, 2006, crash of a Hercules transport plane north of Baghdad.

Overall, the deaths raised to 140 the number of British forces to die in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion and to 109 the number killed in combat.

Blair has announced that Britain will withdraw about 1,600 troops from Iraq over the next few months and hopes to make other cuts to its 7,100-strong contingent by late summer.

Ninth chopper to go down this year
Meanwhile, the U.S. military issued only a brief statement saying an Army helicopter went down and that the incident was under investigation.

NBC VIDEO U.S. military helicopter downed in Iraq April 5: A U.S. military helicopter was downed south of Baghdad on Thursday after coming under fire near a Sunni stronghold. NBC's Tom Aspell reports. MSNBC

An Iraqi army official said earlier that a Black Hawk helicopter had gone down after it came under fire at about 7:30 a.m. near the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Latifiyah, 20 miles south of Baghdad.

It was the ninth U.S. helicopter to go down in Iraq this year, raising concern among the military that insurgents are using more sophisticated weapons or have figured out how to use the old arms in new and effective ways.

The Iraqi official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns, said the helicopter had gone down in a rural area and U.S. forces had cordoned off the site. He said the militants apparently were using anti-aircraft heavy machine gun.

Latifiyah is part of the area dubbed the “Triangle of Death” because of frequent insurgent attacks.

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