4 British, 8 U.S. troops are slain

At least 38 Iraqis also were found slain Thursday in bombings, shellings, gunfire and execution-style killings. They included two television journalists and a 3-year-old boy felled by a sniper's bullet as he sat in his grandfather's lap, police said.

A U.S. helicopter, meanwhile, went down south of Baghdad, injuring four of the nine personnel aboard, the military said. The cause of the incident and the type of aircraft were not immediately announced. The U.S. military said it had launched an investigation but provided no further details.

At least nine American choppers have crashed or been shot down this year, raising concerns that insurgents may be becoming more effective at targeting aircraft. The frequency of flights also could be a factor, as the military relies heavily on aircraft to ferry troops and equipment to avoid roadside bombs.

The British troops were searching for a weapons cache in downtown Basra before dawn Thursday when they came under attack from rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire, said Lt. Col. Kevin Stratford-Wright, a military spokesman in the southern oil port city. The troops repelled the attack, apparently killing at least one of their assailants, he said.

As they returned to base, the troops were hit by a roadside bomb and came under small-arms fire on the western side of the city. The bomb ripped through a Warrior armored vehicle, killing five occupants and seriously injuring a sixth, Stratford-Wright said. Two other people sustained minor wounds.

It was the deadliest assault on British forces since Nov. 12, when four military personnel were killed on a patrol boat in the Shatt al Arab waterway. The latest deaths raised to 140 the number of British troops killed in Iraq since the start of the war in March 2003.

Residents blamed Thursday's bombing on members of the Al Mahdi militia, which is loyal to radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr. But numerous armed bands operate in the city, and it was not possible to verify the reports.

British forces, whose bases are shelled almost daily, were pressing ahead with plans to hand over security control of Basra to Iraqi forces. Last month, they withdrew from one of three bases in the city center.