British soldier wounded in Basra

British soldiers killed a suspected terrorist in the southern city of Basra during an overnight gunbattle in which a British soldier was wounded, a military spokesman said today.

Two platoons conducting a routine patrol in Iraq's second-largest city of Basra, 340 miles south-east of Baghdad, received information on "the location of what they believed to be a leading terrorist," said Maj Charlie Burbridge, a spokesman for Multinational Forces in southern Iraq.

As they moved toward the area, they came under fire from a building, and one British soldier was wounded in the ensuing firefight, Burbridge said.

The British soldiers killed one man inside the building. Burbridge said the man was suspected of involvement in executions in Basra and to have been "linked to quite nasty criminal activity."

The patrol had set off at about 10pm last night, and continued until 3am this morning, Burbridge said.