A British soldier has been killed by a roadside bomb in the southern Iraqi town of Basra. Britain – one of Washington’s main allies in its war on terror – has more than 8,000 troops stationed in southern Iraq.

It has enjoyed relative calm compared to central Iraq where insurgents have been waging a bloody campaign of suicide bombings directed at the Shi’ite and Kurdish-led government. Civilians are the main victims of the conflict – in the past couple of days alone, hundreds of people have been killed in attacks on mosques, markets and other public places.

Copyright © 2012 euronews