British soldier wounded in gunbattle in southern Iraq

A British soldier was wounded in a clash with suspected terrorists in the Iraqi southern city of Basra, in which an Iraqi suspect was killed, a British spokesman said on Tuesday.

A British patrol of two platoons received information on "the location of what they believed to be a leading terrorist" in Basra, some 550 km south of Baghdad, said Maj. Charlie Burbridge, a spokesman for multi-national forces in southern Iraq.

The British patrol came under fire from a building when they arrived the suspected location late Monday night in which one British soldier was wounded, the spokesman said.

During the exchange of fire, the British soldiers gunned down a man in the building who was suspected of involvement in execution crimes in Basra and to have been "linked to quite nasty criminals activity."

Source: Xinhua