Iraqi police have held two British troops in the southern port city of Basra, following a shooting incident. British forces on Monday surrounded a police station in the heart of Basra after Iraqi police refused to free the two men, AFP said Monday.
One Basra policeman said the two Britons who were detained were undercover soldiers, who allegedly fired at a police patrol before being forced to stop. Two Iraqi civilians were killed as a result from the British fire. Later, the two were released.
Earlier, two car bombs killed at least eight people traveling on Monday on the road from Baghdad to the Shi'ite holy city of Kerbala where hundreds of thousands of pilgrims are gathering for a religious festival.
According to Reuters, Iraqi police said the bombs struck in the towns of Mahmoudiya and Latifiya, killing one civilian and seven police. Two policemen were also injured.
In another development, Iraqi journalist Fakher Haidar al-Tamimi, who worked for foreign media in the country, was found shot dead in the southern city of Basra after he was kidnapped overnight. "Eight masked gunmen kidnapped him around 1:00 am (2100 GMT Sunday) from his house in the Al-Asmaey neighbourhood," his wife was quoted as saying by AFP. Tamimi's body was found in Al-Kiblah, a southwestern district of Basra.
